Maxims drawn from the teaching of the Spirits.

— The essential aim of Spiritism is to make men better. In it let nothing be sought but what may contribute to their moral and intellectual progress.

— The true Spiritist is not the one who believes in the manifestations, but the one who profits from the teaching given by the Spirits. It avails nothing to believe, if belief does not lead one to take a step forward on the road of progress and does not make one better toward one's neighbor.

— Egoism, pride, vanity, ambition, cupidity, hatred, envy, jealousy, slander are, for the soul, poisonous weeds, of which it is necessary, every day, to pull up a few shoots, and which have for their antidote charity and humility.

— Belief in Spiritism is profitable only to him of whom it can be said: He is worth more today than yesterday.

— The importance that man attaches to temporal goods is in inverse proportion to his faith in the spiritual life. It is doubt as to the future that leads him to seek his joys in this world, satisfying his passions, even at the cost of his neighbor.

— Earthly afflictions are the remedies of the soul. They save it for the future, as a painful surgical operation saves the life of a sick man and restores his health. This is why the Christ said: “Blessed are the afflicted, for they shall be comforted.”

— In your afflictions look downward and not upward. Think of those who suffer more than you.

— Despair is natural in him who believes that everything ends with the life of the body. It is a folly in him who has faith in the future.

— Often man is the artificer of his own misfortune in this world. Let him go back to the source of his misfortunes and he will see that these, for the most part, result from his lack of foresight, from his pride, and from his greed, and consequently from his infractions of the laws of God.

— Prayer is an act of adoration. To pray to God is to think of Him; it is to draw near to Him; it is to place oneself in communication with Him.

— He who prays with fervor and confidence is stronger against the temptations of evil, and God sends him good Spirits to assist him. And it is a succor never refused when asked with sincerity.

— The essential is not to pray much, but to pray well. Certain persons judge that all merit lies in the length of the prayer, while they close their eyes to their own defects. For them prayer is an occupation, a means of employing their time, but not a study of themselves.

— He who asks of God the forgiveness of his faults obtains it only by changing his conduct. Good actions are the best prayer, since acts are worth more than words.

— Prayer is recommended by all the good Spirits. All the imperfect Spirits ask for it as a means of relief for their sufferings.

— Prayer cannot change the decrees of Providence. The suffering Spirits, however, seeing that we interest ourselves in them, feel themselves less forsaken and less unhappy. It raises their spirits and excites in them the desire to elevate themselves through repentance and reparation, and it can divert them from thinking of evil. In this sense it is that it can not only give them relief, but also shorten their sufferings.

— Let each pray according to his convictions and in the manner he judges most fitting, since the form is worth nothing and the thought is everything. Sincerity and purity of intention, that is the essential. A good thought is worth more than a great number of words, which resemble the noise of a mill, but in which the heart takes no part.

— God made men strong and powerful in order to be the support of the weak. The strong man who oppresses the weak is cursed by God. Often he receives his chastisement in this life, without prejudice to those reserved for the future.

— Fortune is a deposit of which the possessor is only the usufructuary, since he does not take it with him to the tomb. He will render strict account of the use he has made of it.

— Fortune is a more hazardous trial than poverty, because it is a temptation to abuse and excess, and because it is more difficult to be moderate than to be resigned.

— The ambitious man who triumphs and the rich man who delights in material enjoyments are more deserving of compassion than of envy, for one must take the reverse into account. Spiritism, through the terrible examples of those who have lived and who come to reveal their lot, shows the truth of these words of the Christ: “He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

— Charity is the supreme law of the Christ: “Love one another as brothers; — love your neighbor as yourself; — forgive your enemies; — do not do to others what you would not wish done to you.” All this is summed up in the word charity.

— Charity does not consist only in almsgiving. There is charity by thoughts, words, and works. He is charitable by thoughts who is indulgent toward the faults of his neighbor; charitable by words he who says nothing that might harm his neighbor; charitable by works he who, to the measure of his strength, assists his neighbor.

— The poor man who shares his piece of bread with another poorer than himself is more charitable and has more merit in the eyes of God than he who gives of his surplus, without depriving himself of anything.

— Whoever harbors against his neighbor sentiments of animosity, of hatred, of jealousy, and of rancor, fails in charity; he lies, if he calls himself a Christian, and he offends God.

— Men of all castes, of all sects, and of all colors, you are all brothers, since God calls you all to Himself. Extend, then, your hands to one another, in whatever manner you may adore Him, and do not hurl anathema at one another, seeing that anathema is the violation of the law of charity proclaimed by the Christ.

— With egoism, men live in perpetual strife; with charity they will live in peace. Only charity, serving as the basis of their institutions, will assure them happiness in this world. According to the words of the Christ, it alone can also assure them happiness, because it implicitly contains all the virtues that can lead them to perfection. With true charity, such as Jesus taught and practiced it, there is neither jealousy, nor slander, nor exaggerated attachment to the goods of this world. This is why Christian Spiritism has for its maxim: “Outside of charity there is no salvation.”

— Incredulous ones! You may laugh at the Spirits, mock those who believe in their manifestations. Laugh, then, if you dare, at this maxim that they come to teach and that constitutes your own safeguard, for, if charity were to disappear from the face of the Earth, men would devour one another, and you would be, perhaps, the first victims. The time is not far off when this maxim, proclaimed openly in the name of the Spirits, will be a pledge of security and a title to confidence in all those who bear it engraved in their hearts. A Spirit said: “They mocked at the turning tables; they will never mock at the philosophy and the morality that derive from them.” Indeed, after only a few years, we are already far from those first phenomena which, for a moment, served as a distraction for the idle and the curious. You say that this morality is antiquated: “The Spirits ought to have enough wit to give us something new.” (A witty phrase of more than one critic.) So much the better, if it is antiquated! That proves that it is of all times, men being the more culpable for not having practiced it, seeing that only the true truths are eternal. Spiritism comes to recall this morality to them, not by means of an isolated revelation, made to a single man, but by the voice of the Spirits themselves who, like the final trumpet, come to cry out to them: “Believe that those whom you call dead are more alive than you, because they see what you do not see and hear what you do not hear. Recognize, in those who come to speak to you, your relatives and friends, all those whom you loved on the Earth and whom you believed lost forever. Woe to those who think that everything ends with the body, for they will be cruelly undeceived. Woe to those who have failed in charity, for they will endure all that they will have made others endure! Listen to the voice of those who suffer and who come to say to you: “We suffer for having failed to recognize the power of God and for having doubted His infinite mercy; we suffer because of our pride, our egoism, our avarice, and all the bad passions that we did not know how to repress. We suffer for all the evil we did to our fellows, through the forgetting of the law of charity.” Incredulous ones! Say whether a doctrine that teaches such things is laughable, whether it is good or bad. Even considering it solely from the point of view of the social order, say whether the men who practiced it would be happy or unhappy, better or worse!