Example 11 - JEAN REYNAUD.

My friends: how splendid is this new life! Like a luminous torrent, it sweeps along in its immense course the Spirits made drunk by the infinite!

I passed from the shadows of matter to the brilliant dawn that gives a foreglimpse of the Almighty. After the rupture of the material bonds, my eyes took in new horizons, and I live and enjoy the sumptuous marvels of the infinite.

I was saved, not through the merit of my services, but through the knowledge of the eternal principle that made me avoid the blemishes produced by ignorance upon poor Humanity.

My death was blessed, even though my biographers, the blind, judge it premature! Some lamented certain writings born of the dust, and they have not understood nor will they understand how useful to the cause of Spiritism is the silence around the newly closed tomb.

My task was finished; my predecessors were following the road; I had reached the apogee at which man, after giving the best he possessed, would do no more than begin again.

My death revives the attention of the learned, directing it toward my chief work concerning the great spiritual question which they pretend to ignore, but which very soon will captivate them.

Glory to God! Aided by superior Spirits, who protect the new doctrine, I shall be one of the explorers who mark out your itinerary. Jean Reynaud.

II.

(Paris; family gathering. Another spontaneous communication.)

The Spirit responds to a reflection on his unexpected death, at a not very advanced age, which surprised many people.

“Who told you that my death may not be, in the future and through its consequences, a benefit for Spiritism?

Have you noticed, my friend, the march that progress follows, the direction the Spiritist belief is taking? First of all, God gave it the material proofs: movement of tables, raps and every kind of phenomenon, to awaken attention. It was like an amusing preface. Men need tangible proofs in order to believe.

Now the case is very different. After the material facts, God speaks to the intelligence, to good sense, to cold reason; they are no longer physical effects, but rational things which must convince and gather together all the incredulous, even the most stubborn.

And this is only the beginning: Take careful note of what I tell you: — a whole series of intelligent, irrefutable phenomena will follow, and the already so great number of adherents of the Spiritist belief will increase still more.

God will insinuate Himself into the choice intelligences, into the foremost minds in spirit, in talent and in knowledge. It will be like a ray of light expanding, pouring itself over the whole Earth, like an irresistible magnetic fluid, drawing the most recalcitrant to the investigation of the infinite, to the study of this admirable science which teaches us such sublime maxims.

They will all gather around you and, setting aside the diploma of genius, will become humble and small in order to learn and to believe. Then, later, when they are instructed and convinced, they will make use of their authority and notoriety to carry still further, to its ultimate limits, the aim you have proposed to yourselves the regeneration of the human species through the rational and profound knowledge of past and future existences. There you have my sincere opinion on the present state of Spiritism.” III.

(Bordeaux.)

Evocation. — I come gladly at your call, madam. You are right; spiritual disturbance does not exist for me (this corresponded to the medium's thought); a voluntary exile, upon the Earth, where I was to cast the first solid seed of the great truths which at this moment envelop the world, I always had the consciousness of the spiritual homeland and quickly recognized myself among brothers.

Q. I thank you for your presence, though I do not believe that the mere desire to converse with you determined your coming; there must necessarily be so great a difference between us, that merely to consider it fills me with respect.

A. My daughter, thank you for that good thought; nevertheless, you must also know that however great the distance, by virtue of the conclusion of trials more or less happily and promptly ended, there always exists a powerful link that binds us — sympathy — and you have just tightened that link by your constant thought.

Q. Since many Spirits have explained their first sensations upon awakening could you tell me what you experienced in such a circumstance and how the separation of your Spirit took place?

A. The same as with the others. I felt the moment of departure approaching; happier, however, than many, that moment instilled no anguish in me, because I already knew its consequences, although these were more important than I supposed.

The body is a hindrance to the spiritual faculties and, however great the lights it preserves, they are more or less dimmed by contact with matter.

I closed my eyes in the hope of a happy awakening and, if the sleep was brief, the wonder was immense. The celestial splendors, unfolded before my eyes, displayed themselves in all their magnificence! My dazzled sight immersed itself in the immensity of the worlds whose existence I had affirmed, as well as their habitability. It was a mirage revealing and confirming at one and the same time the correctness of my thoughts.

Man, however convinced he may be, when he speaks has, at times, doubt in the depths of his heart, distrusting, if not the truth he proclaims, at least the imperfect means employed to demonstrate it. Convinced of the truth I insinuated, I often had to combat myself, to combat the discouragement of seeing, of touching as it were the truth, and not being able to make it equally palpable to those who so much need it in order to advance along the road that would suit them. Q. In life did you profess Spiritism?

A. There is a great difference between professing and practicing.

Many people profess a doctrine, which they do not practice; well then, I practiced and did not profess.

Just as a Christian is every man who follows the laws of the Christ, even without knowing him, so too we can be Spiritists, believing in the immortality of the soul, in reincarnations, in incessant progress, in earthly trials — necessary ablutions for improvement. Believing in all this, I was therefore a Spiritist.

I understood erraticity, the intermediate link of reincarnations and the purgatory in which the guilty Spirit strips off the impure garments to put on a new toga, and where the Spirit, in evolution, carefully weaves that toga which it must carry with the intent of keeping it pure.

I understood all this, and, without professing, I continued to practice.

NOTE. — These three communications were obtained by three different mediums, strangers to one another. From the analogy of the thoughts and form of the language, we may, at least as a presumption, admit their authenticity.

The expression: “carefully weave the toga which it must carry” is a felicitous figure that portrays the solicitude with which the Spirit in evolution prepares the new existence conducive to a greater progress than the one already made. Backward Spirits are less meticulous, and often make disastrous choices, which force them to begin again.