THE TIMES ARE COME.

Signs of the times.

— The new generation.

THE NEW GENERATION.

— In order for men to be happy on Earth, it is necessary that it be peopled only by good Spirits, incarnate and disincarnate, who devote themselves only to good.

The time having come, a great emigration is taking place among those who inhabit it: that of those who do evil for evil's sake, not yet touched by the sentiment of good, who, being no longer worthy of the transformed planet, will be excluded, because otherwise they would once again cause it disturbance and confusion and would constitute an obstacle to progress.

They will go to expiate the hardness of their hearts, some in inferior worlds, others among terrestrial races still backward, equivalent to worlds of that order, to which they will bring the knowledge they have acquired, having as their mission to make them advance.

They will be replaced by better Spirits, who will cause justice, peace, and fraternity to reign in their midst.

The Earth, according to the Spirits, will not have to be transformed by means of a cataclysm that suddenly annihilates a generation.

The present one will disappear gradually and the new one will succeed it in the same way, without any change in the natural order of things.

Everything, therefore, will proceed outwardly as it usually does, with the sole but capital difference that a part of the Spirits who used to incarnate on Earth will no longer incarnate there.

In each child that is born, instead of a backward Spirit inclined to evil, who would formerly have incarnated in it, there will come a more advanced Spirit inclined to good.

It is therefore much less a matter of a new corporeal generation than of a new generation of Spirits; 10 it is doubtless in this sense that Jesus understood things when he declared: "Truly I say to you that this generation will not pass away before these things have come to pass."

Thus disappointed will be those who count on seeing the transformation operate through supernatural and marvelous effects.

— The present epoch is one of transition; the elements of the two generations are intermingled.

Placed at the intermediate point, we witness the departure of one and the arrival of the other, each already marking itself in the world by the characters that are peculiar to it.

The two generations that succeed one another have opposite ideas and points of view.

By the nature of the moral dispositions, but above all of the intuitive and innate dispositions, it becomes easy to distinguish to which of the two each individual belongs.

As it falls to it to found the era of moral progress, the new generation is distinguished by intelligence and reason that are generally precocious, joined to the innate sentiment of good and to spiritualist beliefs, which constitutes an indubitable sign of a certain degree of prior advancement.

It will not be composed exclusively of eminently superior Spirits, but of those who, having already progressed, are predisposed to assimilate all progressive ideas and apt to support the movement of regeneration.

What, on the contrary, distinguishes backward Spirits is, in the first place, revolt against God, through their refusal to recognize any power superior to human powers; 8 the instinctive propensity for degrading passions, for the anti-fraternal sentiments of egoism, of pride, of envy, of jealousy; 9 in short, attachment to all that is material: sensuality, cupidity, avarice.

It is of these vices that the Earth must be purged by the removal of those who obstinately refuse to amend themselves; because they are incompatible with the reign of fraternity and because contact with them will always constitute a suffering for men of good will.

When the Earth is rid of them, men will walk without hindrance toward the better future that is reserved for them, even in this world, as a reward for their efforts and their perseverance, while they await a more complete purification that will open to them access to the superior worlds.

— It must not be understood that by means of this emigration of Spirits all the laggard Spirits will be expelled from the Earth and relegated to inferior worlds.

Many, on the contrary, will return there, for there are many who are laggards because they yielded to the pull of circumstances and of example; in these, the husk is worse than the core.

Once removed from the influence of matter and of the prejudices of the corporeal world, they, for the most part, will see things in an entirely different manner from that in which they saw them when alive, according to the many cases that we know.

To this end, they are aided by benevolent Spirits who take an interest in them and hasten to enlighten them and to show them how false was the path they were following.

In these same Spirits, through our prayers and exhortations, we can contribute to their betterment, since between the dead and the living there is perpetual solidarity.

The manner in which the transformation operates is very simple, being, as one sees, entirely of a moral order, without departing in any way from the laws of Nature.

— Whether those who make up the new generation are better Spirits, or old Spirits who have improved, the result is the same; since they bring better dispositions, there is always a renewal.

Thus, according to their natural dispositions, the incarnate Spirits form two categories: on one side, the laggards, who depart; on the other, the progressives, who arrive.

The state of customs and of society will therefore be, within a people, a race, or the whole world, in relation to whichever of the two categories preponderates.

— A common comparison will make even better understood what happens in this circumstance.

Let us imagine a regiment composed for the most part of turbulent and undisciplined men, who will cause in it constant disorders that the penal law will at times have difficulty in repressing. These men are the strongest, because more numerous than the others. They support, encourage, and stimulate one another by example. The few good ones exercise no influence; their counsels are despised, and they suffer from the company of the others, who jeer at and mistreat them. Is this not an image of present-day society?

Let us suppose that these men are withdrawn one by one, ten by ten, a hundred by a hundred, from the regiment and gradually replaced by equal numbers of good soldiers, even by some of those who, having already been expelled, have corrected themselves. After some time, the same regiment will exist, but transformed. Good order will have succeeded disorder.

— The great collective departures, however, do not have as their sole aim to hasten the exits; they have equally that of transforming more rapidly the spirit of the mass, freeing it from bad influences, and that of giving greater ascendancy to the new ideas.

It is because many, despite their imperfections, are ripe for transformation that many depart, in order merely to be re-tempered at a purer source.

As long as they remained in the same milieu and under the same influences, they would persist in their opinions and in their ways of appraising things.

A sojourn in the world of the Spirits will suffice to open their eyes, for there they see what they could not see on Earth.

The unbeliever, the fanatic, the absolutist, will consequently be able to return with innate ideas of faith, tolerance, and liberty. On returning, they will find things changed and will experience the influence of the new milieu in which they will have been born. Far from opposing the new ideas, they will become their auxiliaries.

— The regeneration of Humanity, therefore, does not absolutely require the integral renewal of the Spirits: a modification in their moral dispositions suffices; 2 this modification operates in all those who are predisposed to it, once they are removed from the pernicious influence of the world.

Thus, those who return are not always other Spirits; they are frequently the same Spirits, but thinking and feeling in another manner.

When isolated and individual, this betterment passes unnoticed and attains no ostensible influence over the world.

Quite otherwise is the effect when the improvement occurs simultaneously upon great masses, because then, according to the proportions it assumes, in one generation, it can profoundly modify the ideas of a people or of a race.

This is what is almost always observed after the great upheavals that decimate populations.

The destructive scourges destroy only bodies, they do not reach the Spirit; 8 they activate the movement of coming and going between the corporeal world and the spiritual world, and consequently the progressive movement of the incarnate and disincarnate Spirits.

It is to be noted that in all epochs of History, the great social crises have been followed by an era of progress.

— One of these general movements, destined to bring about a remodeling of Humanity, is presently taking place.

The multiplicity of the causes of destruction constitutes a characteristic sign of the times, since they will hasten the bursting forth of the new germs.

They are the leaves that fall in autumn and to which succeed other leaves full of life, for Humanity has its seasons, as individuals have their various ages.

The dead leaves of Humanity fall, beaten by the gusts and by the blows of wind, but in order to be reborn more vigorous under the same breath of life, which is not extinguished but is purified.

— For the materialist, the destructive scourges are calamities without compensation, without usable results, since, in their opinion, the said scourges annihilate beings forever.

For him, however, who knows that death destroys only the envelope, such scourges do not entail the same consequences and cause him not the least dread; 3 he understands their purpose and is not ignorant that men lose no more by dying together than by dying in isolation, given that, in one way or another, all must always come to it.

The unbelievers will laugh at these things and will qualify them as chimerical; but, say what they will, they will not escape the common law; they will fall in their turn, like the others, and then, what will become of them?

They say: Nothing! Yet they will live, in spite of themselves, and one day they will see themselves forced to open their eyes.