PREDICTIONS OF THE GOSPEL.

No one is a prophet in his own land. — Death and passion of Jesus. — Persecution of the apostles. — Impenitent cities. — Ruin of the Temple and of Jerusalem. — Curse upon the Pharisees. — My words shall not pass away. — The cornerstone. — Parable of the murderous vinedressers. — One single flock and one single shepherd. — Advent of Elijah. — Announcement of the Consoler. — Second advent of the Christ. — Precursory signs. — Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. — Last judgment. YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY.

— In the last times, says the Lord, I shall pour out of my spirit upon all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your young men shall have visions and your old men shall have dreams. In those days I shall pour out of my spirit upon my menservants and maidservants, and they shall prophesy. (Acts, chapter II, vv. 17 and 18; Joel, chapter II, vv. 28 and 29.)

— If we consider the present state of the physical world and of the moral world, the tendencies, aspirations, and presentiments of the masses, the decadence of the ancient ideas that for a century have struggled in vain against the new ideas, we cannot doubt that a new order of things is being prepared and that the old world is reaching its term.

If, now, taking into account the allegorical form of certain pictures and scrutinizing the deep meaning of the words of Jesus, we compare the present situation with the times described by him as the marks of the era of renewal, we cannot fail to agree that many of his predictions are presently being realized;

whence the conclusion that we have reached the times announced, which the Spirits who manifest themselves confirm at all points of the globe.

— As we have seen (Chap. I, no. 32), coinciding with other circumstances, the advent of Spiritism realizes one of the most important predictions of Jesus, by the influence that it must necessarily exercise upon ideas.

It is, furthermore, announced in the Acts of the Apostles: “In the last times, says the Lord, I shall pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy.”

It is the unequivocal prediction of the popularization of mediumship, which presently reveals itself in individuals of all ages, of both sexes, and of all conditions; the prediction, consequently, of the universal manifestation of the Spirits, for without the Spirits there would be no mediums.

This, as is said, shall come to pass in the last times; now, since we are not reaching the end of the world but, on the contrary, the epoch of its regeneration, we must understand those words as indicative of the last times of the moral world that is reaching its term. (The Gospel According to Spiritism, chapter XXI.)