THE WORKERS OF THE LAST HOUR.

INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS: The last shall be the first.

— Mission of the Spiritists.

— If, among those called to Spiritism, many have gone astray, by what signs shall we recognize those who are on the right path?

— The laborers of the Lord.

The kingdom of Heaven is like a head of a family who went out early in the morning in order to hire workers for his vineyard; — having agreed with the workers that he would pay each one a denarius per day, he sent them to the vineyard. — He went out again at the third hour of the day and, seeing others who were standing idle in the marketplace doing nothing at all, — said to them: Go you also into my vineyard and I will pay you what is reasonable; — and they went. He went out again at the sixth hour and at the ninth hour of the day and did the same. — Going out once more at the eleventh hour, he found still others who were unoccupied, to whom he said: Why do you remain here the whole day without working? — It is, they said, because no one has hired us. He then said to them: Go you also into my vineyard. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to the one who managed his affairs: Call the workers and pay them, beginning with the last and going on to the first. — Then approaching, those who had arrived only at the eleventh hour each received a denarius. — Coming in their turn, those who had been found first thought they would receive more; but they received only a denarius each; — and on receiving it, they complained to the head of the family, — saying: These last worked only one hour, and you give them as much as us who bore the burden of the day and the heat. But answering, the owner of the vineyard said to one of them: My friend, I do you no wrong; did you not agree with me to receive a denarius for your day? Take what belongs to you and go; it pleases me to give to this last as much as to you. — Is it not then lawful for me to do what I will? Have you an evil eye, because I am good?

Thus, the last shall be the first and the first shall be the last, for many are called and few are chosen.

(Saint Matthew, chapter XX, vv. 1 to 16. See also: Parable of the wedding feast, chapter XVIII: no. 1.)

INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS.

The last shall be the first.

The worker of the last hour has a right to the wage, but it is necessary that his good will have kept him at the disposal of the one who was to employ him, and that his delay not be the fruit of laziness or ill will.

He has a right to the wage, because from daybreak he waited impatiently for the one who would at last call him to the work. Industrious, he lacked only the labor.

If, however, he had refused the work at any hour of the day; if he had said: let us be patient, rest is agreeable to me; when the last hour strikes will be the time to think of the day's wage; what need have I to trouble myself for a master whom I do not know and do not esteem! the later, the better; such a one, my friends, would not have had the wage of the worker, but that of laziness.

What then to say of him who, instead of merely remaining inactive, had employed the hours destined for the day's labor in committing culpable acts; who had blasphemed God, shed the blood of his brothers, cast disturbance into families, ruined those who trusted in him, abused innocence, who, in short, had gorged himself on all the ignominies of Humanity? What will become of him?

Will it suffice for him to say at the last hour: Lord, I have employed my time badly; take me until the end of the day, that I may perform a little, though very little, of my task, and give me the wage of the worker of good will? No, no; the Lord will say to him: I have presently no work to give you; you have squandered your time; you have forgotten what you had learned; you no longer know how to work in my vineyard. Begin therefore to learn again, and when you find yourself better disposed, come to me and I will open to you my vast field, where you will be able to work at any hour of the day.

Good Spiritists, my beloved, you are all workers of the last hour. Very proud would be the one who said: I began the work at the dawn of the day and will finish it only at nightfall.

You all came when you were called, a little earlier, a little later, to the incarnation whose fetters you drag; but for how many centuries upon centuries had the Lord been calling you to his vineyard, without your willing to enter it!

Behold, you are at the moment of pocketing the wage; employ well the hour that remains to you and never forget that your existence, however long it may seem to you, is nothing more than a fleeting instant in the immensity of the ages that form for you eternity. — (CONSTANTINE, Protector Spirit. Bordeaux, 1863.)

Jesus loved the simplicity of symbols and, in his manly language, the workers who arrived at the first hour are the prophets, Moses and all the initiators who marked the stages of progress, 2 which continued to be marked through the centuries by the apostles, by the martyrs, by the Fathers of the Church, by the wise, by the philosophers and, finally, by the Spiritists.

These, who came last, were announced and predicted from the dawn of the advent of the Messiah and will receive the same reward. What do I say? a greater reward.

Last to arrive, they profit from the intellectual labors of their predecessors, because man must inherit from man and because human works are collective: God blesses solidarity.

Besides, many among those live again today, or will live again tomorrow, to finish the work they began long ago.

More than one patriarch, more than one prophet, more than one disciple of the Christ, more than one propagator of the Christian faith is found among them, but more enlightened, more advanced, working no longer at the base but at the summit of the edifice. They will therefore receive a wage proportioned to the value of the work.

Reincarnation, that beautiful dogma, eternalizes and makes precise spiritual filiation.

Called to render an account of his earthly mandate, the Spirit perceives the continuity of the task interrupted, but always taken up again. He sees, he feels that he picked up, in passing, the thought of those who preceded him. He enters the lists anew, matured by experience, in order to advance further. And all, workers of the first and of the last hour, with their eyes wide open upon the profound justice of God, no longer murmur: they adore.

Such is one of the true meanings of this parable, which encloses, like all those that Jesus used in speaking to the people, the germ of the future and also, under all forms, under all images, the revelation of the magnificent unity that harmonizes all things in the Universe, of the solidarity that binds all present beings to the past and to the future. — (HENRI HEINE. Paris, 1863.)

Mission of the Spiritists.

Do you not already hear the noise of the tempest that is to sweep away the old world and engulf in nothingness the whole of earthly iniquities?

Ah! bless the Lord, you who have placed your faith in his sovereign justice and who, new apostles of the belief revealed by the prophetic superior voices, are going to preach the new dogma of reincarnation and of the elevation of the Spirits, according as they have fulfilled, well or ill, their missions and borne their earthly trials.

Be no longer afraid! The tongues of fire are upon your heads. O true adherents of Spiritism!… you are the chosen of God! Go and preach the divine word. The hour has come when you must sacrifice to its propagation your habits, your labors, your futile occupations.

Go and preach. With you are the elevated Spirits. Certainly you will speak to creatures who will not wish to hear the voice of God, because that voice exhorts them incessantly to self-denial; 5 you will preach disinterestedness to the avaricious, abstinence to the dissolute, gentleness to the domestic tyrants, as to the despots! Lost words, I know; but no matter. It is necessary that you water with your sweat the ground where you have to sow, since it will not bear fruit and will not produce except under the repeated blows of the evangelical hoe and plow. Go and preach!

O all you, men of good faith, conscious of your inferiority in the face of the worlds disseminated through the Infinite!… cast yourselves into a crusade against injustice and iniquity. Go and proscribe that cult of the golden calf, which each day spreads further. Go, God guides you!

Simple and ignorant men, your tongues will be loosed and you will speak as no orator speaks. Go and preach, for the attentive populations will joyfully gather your words of consolation, of fraternity, of hope and of peace.

What matter the ambushes that may be set for you along the way! Only wolves fall into traps for wolves, for the shepherd will know how to defend his sheep from the immolating pyres.

Go, men who, great before God, more fortunate than Thomas, believe without insisting on seeing and accept the facts of mediumship, even when you have not succeeded in obtaining them yourselves; go, the Spirit of God leads you.

March, then, forward, phalanx imposing through your faith! Before you the great battalions of the unbelievers will be dispersed, like the morning mist at the first rays of the rising Sun.

Faith is the virtue that moves mountains, said Jesus. Yet, heavier than the greatest mountains, there lie deposited in the hearts of men impurity and all the vices that derive from impurity.

Set out, then, full of courage, to remove that mountain of iniquities which future generations should know only as legend, in the same way that you, who know only very imperfectly the times that preceded pagan civilization.

Yes, at all points of the Globe moral and philosophical subversions are going to occur; the hour approaches when the divine light will be spread over the two worlds.

Go, then, and carry the divine word: to the great who will despise it, to the learned who will demand proofs, to the small and simple who will accept it; because, principally among the martyrs of labor, of this earthly trial, you will find fervor and faith. Go; these will receive, with hymns of gratitude and praises to God, the holy consolation that you will bring them, and they will bow their brow, rendering him thanks for the afflictions that the Earth destines for them.

Let your phalanx arm itself with resolve and courage! To work! the plow is ready; the earth awaits; plow!

Go and thank God for the glorious task that He has entrusted to you; but, attention! among those called to Spiritism many have gone astray; mend, therefore, your path and follow the truth.

Q. If, among those called to Spiritism, many have gone astray, by what signs shall we recognize those who are on the right path? — A. You will recognize them by the principles of true charity that they will teach and practice.

You will recognize them by the number of the afflicted to whom they bring consolation; 19 you will recognize them by their love of neighbor, by their self-denial, by their personal disinterestedness; 20 you will recognize them, finally, by the triumph of their principles, because God wills the triumph of his law; 21 those who follow his law, these are the chosen and He will give them the victory; 22 but He will destroy those who falsify the spirit of that law and make of it a stepping-stone to content their vanity and their ambition. — (ERASTUS, guardian angel of the medium. Paris, 1863.) n The laborers of the Lord.

The time approaches when the things announced for the transformation of Humanity will be fulfilled; 2 happy will be those who shall have worked in the field of the Lord, with disinterestedness and with no other motive than charity! Their days of work will be paid a hundredfold of what they shall have expected.

Happy those who shall have said to their brothers: “Let us work together and unite our efforts, so that the Lord, on arriving, may find the work finished,” for the Lord will say to them: “Come to me, you who are good servants, you who knew how to impose silence upon your jealousies and your discords, so that no harm might come thereby to the work!”

But, woe to those who, through the effect of their dissensions, shall have delayed the hour of the harvest, for the tempest will come and they will be carried away in the whirlwind! They will cry: “Mercy! mercy!” But the Lord will say to them: “How do you implore mercy, you who had no pity on your brothers and who refused to extend your hands to them, who crushed the weak instead of upholding them?

How do you beg for mercy, you who sought your reward in the enjoyments of the Earth and in the satisfaction of your pride? You have already received your reward, just as you wished it. Nothing more is yours to ask; the celestial rewards are for those who have not sought the rewards of the Earth.”

God proceeds, at this moment, to the census of his faithful servants and has already marked with his finger those whose devotion is only apparent, so that they may not usurp the wage of the courageous servants, 7 for it is to those who do not recoil before their tasks that he is going to entrust the most difficult posts in the great work of regeneration through Spiritism.

These words will be fulfilled: “The first shall be the last and the last shall be the first in the kingdom of Heaven.” — (THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. Paris, 1862.)

[1] Editor's Note: In the third edition of 1866, this message appeared incomplete and unsigned. We have completed it in conformity with the 1st edition of 1864.