Example 15 - VICTOR LEBUFLE.

— A young man, a harbor pilot of Le Havre, who died at twenty years of age. He lived with his mother, a shopkeeper, on whom he lavished the most tender and affectionate care, supporting her with the product of his hard labor.

He was never seen to frequent taverns nor to give himself over to the excesses so frequent in his profession, for he did not wish to divert the least particle of his wages from the pious end he destined them for. All his leisure he consecrated to his mother, to spare her fatigue.

Long affected by an illness from which, he knew, he was to die, he hid his sufferings from her so as not to worry her and so that she would not wish to deprive him of his share of labor.

At the age of the passions, this young man needed a great store of moral qualities and a powerful strength of will to resist the pernicious temptations of the milieu in which he lived.

Of sincere piety, his death was edifying.

On the eve of his death, he insisted that his mother go to rest, telling her that he too had need of sleep.

She had at that time a vision; she found herself, she said, in great darkness, when she saw a luminous point that grew little by little, until the room was illuminated by a brilliant brightness, from which stood out, radiant, the figure of her son, rising into the infinite Space. She understood that his end was near, and, indeed, on the following day, that well-formed soul had left Earth murmuring a prayer.

A Spiritist family, aware of his fine conduct, taking an interest in his mother, who had been left alone, had the idea of evoking him a short time after his death, and he manifested himself spontaneously, giving the following communication:

— You wish to know how I am now; happy, most happy! The sufferings and anguish must be taken into account, which are the source of the blessings and of the happiness beyond the tomb.

Happiness! Ah! you do not understand what that word means. How far the earthly joys are from those we experience upon returning to Jesus, with a pure conscience, with the confidence of the servant who has fulfilled his duty, who awaits full of joy the approval of Him who is all.

“Ah! my friends, life is painful and difficult, when one does not have its end in view; but I tell you, in truth, that when you come to be among us, if you follow the law of God, you will be rewarded beyond, far beyond the sufferings and the merits that you may perhaps believe you have acquired for the other life.

Be good and charitable, with that charity so unknown among men, and which is called benevolence.

Succor your fellow beings, doing for others more than for yourselves, since you are ignorant of the misery of others and know your own.

Succor my mother, poor mother, the only grief that comes to me from Earth. She must pass through other trials, and it is necessary that she reach Heaven. Farewell, I am going to see her.” Victor.

The guide of the medium. — Not always do the sufferings endured bitterly on Earth constitute an expiation.

The Spirits who, fulfilling the will of the Lord, descend to Earth, like this one, are happy to undergo ills that for others would be an expiation.

Sleep reinvigorates them before the All-Powerful, giving them the strength to bear everything for His greater glory.

The mission of this Spirit, in his last existence, was not one of display, but however obscure it was, it had no less merit for that, since it could not be stimulated by pride.

He had, before all, a duty of gratitude to show that in the worst environments may be found pure souls, of noble and elevated sentiments, capable of resisting all temptations.

This is a proof that moral qualities have prior causes, and such an example will not have been sterile.