FAITH MOVES MOUNTAINS.

Power of faith. — Religious faith. Condition of unshakable faith.

— Parable of the fig tree that withered.

— INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS: Faith: mother of hope and of charity.

— Divine faith and human faith.

Power of faith.

When he came to meet the people, a man approached him and, throwing himself on his knees at his feet, said: Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers greatly, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. I presented him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.

— Jesus answered, saying: O unbelieving and depraved race, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring me that boy here.

— And having Jesus threatened the demon, it came out of the boy, who at that same instant was made whole. — The disciples then came to Jesus in private and asked him: Why could we not cast out that demon?

— Jesus answered them: Because of your unbelief. For verily I say unto you, if you had faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mountain: Move from there to here, and it would move, and nothing would be impossible to you. (Saint Matthew, chapter XVII, vv. 14 to 19.)

In the literal sense, it is certain that confidence in one's own strength makes a man capable of executing material things that one who doubts himself cannot do. Here, however, these words must be understood only in the moral sense.

The mountains that faith moves are the difficulties, the resistances, the ill will, in short, that one encounters on the part of men, even when it concerns the best of things; 3 the prejudices of routine, material interest, egoism, the blindness of fanaticism, and prideful passions are so many mountains that bar the way of those who labor for the progress of Humanity.

Robust faith gives the perseverance, the energy, and the resources that enable obstacles to be overcome, both in small things and in great ones; 5 from wavering faith result the uncertainty and the hesitation of which the adversaries one must combat take advantage; such faith does not seek the means to win, because it does not believe that it can win.

In another sense, faith is understood as the confidence one has in the accomplishment of a thing, the certainty of reaching a determined end; 2 it gives a kind of lucidity that allows one to see, in thought, the goal one wishes to attain and the means of getting there, so that he who possesses it walks, so to speak, with absolute security.

In one case as in the other, it can give rise to the execution of great things.

Sincere and true faith is always calm; it grants the patience that knows how to wait, because, having its point of support in intelligence and in the understanding of things, it has the certainty of reaching the aimed-for objective; 5 wavering faith feels its own weakness; when interest stimulates it, it becomes furious and thinks to supply, by violence, the strength it lacks.

Calm in the struggle is always a sign of strength and of confidence; violence, on the contrary, denotes weakness and doubt of oneself.

One must not confuse faith with presumption.

True faith is conjoined with humility; he who possesses it places more confidence in God than in himself, knowing that, being a mere instrument of the divine will, he can do nothing without God. For this reason the good Spirits come to his aid.

Presumption is less faith than pride, and pride is always punished, sooner or later, by the disappointment and the failures inflicted upon it.

The power of faith is demonstrated, in a direct and special way, in magnetic action; through it, man acts upon the fluid, the universal agent, modifies its qualities, and gives it an impulse that is, so to speak, irresistible.

From this it follows that he who, to a great normal fluidic power, joins ardent faith can, by the sole force of his will directed toward good, perform those singular phenomena of healing and others, anciently held to be prodigies, but which are nothing more than the effect of a natural law.

Such is the reason why Jesus said to his apostles: if you did not cure him, it was because you did not have faith. Religious faith. Condition of unshakable faith.

From the religious point of view, faith consists in belief in special dogmas, which constitute the different religions. They all have their articles of faith.

Under this aspect, faith may be reasoned or blind.

Examining nothing, blind faith accepts, without verification, the true as well as the false, and at every step it collides with evidence and reason. Carried to excess, it produces fanaticism. Resting upon error, it collapses sooner or later; 4 only the faith that is based on truth guarantees the future, because it has nothing to fear from the progress of enlightenment, since what is true in obscurity is also true in the light of noonday.

Each religion claims to have the exclusive possession of the truth; for someone to advocate blind faith on a point of belief is to confess himself powerless to demonstrate that he is in the right.

It is commonly said that faith cannot be prescribed, whence many people allege that it is not their fault that they have no faith.

Without doubt, faith cannot be prescribed, nor, what is even more certain, can it be imposed. No; it is acquired, and there is no one who is prevented from possessing it, even among the most refractory. We speak of the basic spiritual truths and not of this or that particular belief.

It is not for faith to seek them out; it is for them to go to meet it, and if they seek it sincerely, they will not fail to find it.

Hold it, then, as certain that those who say: “We desire nothing better than to believe, but we cannot,” say it only with their lips and not from within, for, in saying this, they stop up their ears.

The proofs, however, rain down all around them; why do they flee from observing them? On the part of some, there is indifference; on the part of others, the fear of being forced to change their habits; on the part of the majority, there is pride, refusing to recognize the existence of a superior force, because they would have to bow before it.

In certain persons, faith seems in some way innate; a spark suffices to develop it. This facility in assimilating spiritual truths is an evident sign of prior progress; 7 in other persons, on the contrary, they penetrate with difficulty, a no less evident sign of laggard natures.

The former have already believed and understood; they bring, in being reborn, the intuition of what they knew: their education is done; 9 the latter have everything to learn: their education is yet to be done. It will, however, be done, and if it is not completed in this existence, it will be in another.

The resistance of the unbeliever, we must admit, often comes less from him than from the manner in which things are presented to him.

Faith needs a base, a base that is the perfect understanding of that in which one is to believe; 12 and, in order to believe, it is not enough to see; it is necessary, above all, to understand.

Blind faith no longer belongs to this century, so much so that it is precisely the dogma of blind faith that today produces the greatest number of unbelievers, because it seeks to impose itself, demanding the abdication of one of man's most precious prerogatives: reasoning and free will.

It is principally against this faith that the unbeliever rises up, and it is of this faith that one can, with truth, say that it cannot be prescribed. Admitting no proofs, it leaves in the mind something vague, which gives birth to doubt.

Reasoned faith, by supporting itself on facts and on logic, leaves no obscurity. The creature then believes, because it is certain, and no one is certain except because he has understood. This is why it does not bend; 16 because the only unshakable faith is that which can look reason in the face, in all epochs of Humanity.

To this result Spiritism leads, whereby it triumphs over unbelief, whenever it does not meet with systematic and interested opposition.

Parable of the fig tree that withered.

When they were leaving Bethany, he was hungry; — and, seeing a fig tree at a distance, he went toward it to see if he would find anything; having, however, approached, he found only leaves, since it was not the season for figs. — Then, Jesus said to the fig tree: Let no one ever eat any fruit from you, which his disciples heard. — On the following day, as they passed by the fig tree, they saw that it had withered down to the root. — Peter, remembering what Jesus had said, said:

Master, look how the fig tree that you cursed has withered. — Jesus, taking up the word, said to them: Have faith in God. — I say to you, verily, that he who shall say to this mountain: Take yourself from there and cast yourself into the sea, but without hesitating in his heart, believing, on the contrary, firmly, that all he shall have said will come to pass, shall see that, indeed, it comes to pass. (Saint Mark, chapter XI, vv. 12 to 14 and 20 to 23.)

The fig tree that withered is the symbol of those who merely give the appearance of an inclination toward good, but who, in reality, produce nothing good; 2 of the orators who have more brilliance than solidity, whose words carry a superficial varnish, so that they please the ears, without, however, revealing, when examined closely, anything substantial for the hearts. One may ask what profit those who listened to them drew from them.

It also symbolizes all those who, having the means to be useful, are not; 4 all utopias, all hollow systems, all doctrines lacking a solid base.

What most often is lacking is true faith, productive faith, the faith that stirs the fibers of the heart, the faith, in a word, that moves mountains.

They are trees covered with leaves, but devoid of fruit. This is why Jesus condemns them to sterility, for a day will come when they will be found withered down to the root; 7 that is to say, that all systems, all doctrines that have produced no good for Humanity, will fall, reduced to nothing; 8 that all men deliberately useless, for not having put into action the resources they brought with them, will be treated like the fig tree that withered.

Mediums are the interpreters of the Spirits; they supply, in the latter, the lack of material organs through which they may transmit their instructions. Hence they are endowed with faculties for this purpose.

In present times, of social renewal, a most special mission falls to them; they are trees destined to furnish spiritual nourishment to their brethren; they multiply in number, so that the nourishment may abound; there are some everywhere, in all countries, in all classes of society, among the rich and the poor, among the great and the small, so that at no point may they be lacking and so that it may be demonstrated to men that all are called.

If, however, they divert from the providential objective the precious faculty that was granted to them, if they employ it in futile or harmful things, if they put it at the service of worldly interests, if instead of ripe fruits they give bad fruits, if they refuse to use it for the benefit of others, if they draw no profit from it for themselves, by bettering themselves, they are like the sterile fig tree.

God will withdraw from them a gift that has become useless in them: the seed they do not know how to make fruitful, and he will consent that they become prey to the evil Spirits. INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS.

Faith:

mother of hope and of charity.

To be profitable, faith must be active; it must not grow numb.

Mother of all the virtues that lead to God, it is incumbent upon it to watch attentively over the development of the children it has begotten.

Hope and charity are corollaries of faith and form with it an inseparable trinity.

Is it not faith that grants hope in the accomplishment of the Lord's promises? If you have no faith, what will you hope for?

Is it not faith that gives love? If you have no faith, what will be your gratitude and, therefore, your love?

A divine inspiration, faith awakens all the noble instincts that direct man toward good; it is the basis of regeneration.

It is necessary, then, that this basis be strong and durable, for, if the slightest doubt should shake it, what will become of the edifice you build upon it? Raise, consequently, that edifice upon immovable foundations; 8 let your faith be stronger than the sophisms and the mockeries of the unbelievers, since the faith that does not confront the ridicule of men is not true faith.

Sincere faith is gripping and contagious; it communicates itself to those who did not have it, or who, even, would not wish to have it; 10 it finds persuasive words that go to the soul, whereas apparent faith uses sonorous words that leave him who hears them cold and indifferent.

Preach by the example of your faith, in order to instill it in men; 12 preach by the example of your works, in order to demonstrate to them the merit of faith; 13 preach by your firm hope, in order to let them see the confidence that fortifies and puts the creature in a condition to face all the vicissitudes of life.

Have, then, faith, with all that it contains of the beautiful and the good, with its purity, with its rationality.

Do not admit faith without verification, the blind daughter of blindness.

Love God, but knowing why you love him; believe in his promises, but knowing why you believe in them; follow our counsels, but penetrated with the end we point out to you and with the means we bring you to attain it.

Believe and hope without faltering: miracles are the works of faith. — (JOSEPH, Protecting Spirit. Bordeaux, 1862.) Divine faith and human faith.

In man, faith is the innate sentiment of his future destinies; 2 it is the consciousness he has of the immense faculties deposited in germ within his innermost being, at first in a latent state, and which it is incumbent upon him to make blossom and grow through the action of his will.

Up to the present, faith has not been understood except from the religious side, because the Christ exalted it as a powerful lever and because he has been considered merely as the head of a religion. Yet the Christ, who performed material miracles, showed, by those very miracles, what man can do when he has faith, that is, the will to will and the certainty that this will can obtain satisfaction.

Did not the apostles also perform miracles, following his example? Now, what were those miracles but natural effects, whose causes the men of that time did not know, but which, today, are in great part explained and which, through the study of Spiritism and of Magnetism, will become completely understandable?

Faith is human or divine, according as man applies his faculties to the satisfaction of earthly needs, or of his celestial and future aspirations.

The man of genius who casts himself into the realization of some great undertaking triumphs, if he has faith, because he feels within himself that he can and shall reach the aimed-for end, a certainty that grants him immense strength.

The good man who, believing in his celestial future, desires to fill his existence with beautiful and noble actions, draws from his faith, from the certainty of the happiness that awaits him, the necessary strength, and there too miracles of charity, of devotion, and of self-abnegation are wrought.

Finally, with faith, there are no evil inclinations that cannot be overcome.

Magnetism is one of the greatest proofs of the power of faith put into action. It is by faith that it cures and produces those singular phenomena, formerly qualified as miracles.

I repeat: faith is human and divine. If all the incarnate were well persuaded of the strength they bear within themselves, and if they were willing to put their will at the service of that strength, they would be capable of accomplishing what, until today, they have called prodigies and which, nevertheless, is nothing more than a development of the human faculties. — (A PROTECTING SPIRIT. Paris, 1863.)