MY SUCCESSOR.

A conversation with the Spirits having led to speaking of my successor in the direction of Spiritism, I formulated the following question:

Question. — Among the adherents, there are many who concern themselves with what will become of Spiritism after me and who ask who will replace me when I depart, since no one is seen to appear, in a notorious manner, to take up its reins. I answer that I do not nurture the pretension of being indispensable; that God is too wise to make a doctrine destined to regenerate the world rest upon the life of one man; that, moreover, I have always been advised that my task is to constitute the Doctrine and that for this the necessary time will be granted me. That of my successor will, therefore, be easier, since he will already find the path traced out, it being enough for him to follow it. Nevertheless, if the Spirits should judge it opportune to tell me something more positive in this regard, I would be very grateful to them. Answer. — All this is rigorously exact — this is what we are permitted to tell you further. You are right to affirm that you are not indispensable; you are so only in the view of men, because it was necessary that the work of organization be concentrated in the hands of one alone, so that there might be unity; you are not so, however, in the eyes of God. You were chosen, and that is why you find yourself alone; but you are not, as, moreover, you well know, the only entity capable of carrying out this mission. If its carrying out were interrupted by any cause whatever, God would not lack others to replace you. Thus, come what may, Spiritism will not be imperiled.

As long as the work of elaboration is not concluded, it is, therefore, necessary that you be the only one in evidence: a banner was needed around which people could gather. It was necessary that they consider you indispensable, so that the work that comes from your hands might have more authority in the present and in the future; it was even necessary that they fear the consequences of your departure.

If the one who is to replace you were designated beforehand, the work, not yet finished, might suffer hindrances; oppositions raised by jealousy would form against you; they would discuss him before he gave proof of himself; the enemies of the Doctrine would seek to bar his path, resulting in schisms and separations. He, therefore, will reveal himself when the moment comes.

His task will thus be facilitated, because, as you say, the path will be all traced out; if he were to stray from it, he would lose himself, as those have already lost themselves who have wished to place themselves across the road. The said task, however, will be more arduous in another sense, since he will have to sustain ruder struggles. To you falls the charge of conception, to him that of execution, wherefore he will have to be a man of energy and of action. Admire here the wisdom of God in the choice of his mandataries: you possess the qualities that were necessary for the work you have to accomplish, but you do not possess those that will be necessary for your successor. You need the calm, the tranquillity of the writer who matures ideas in the silence of meditation; he will need the strength of the captain who commands a ship according to the rules of Science. Relieved of the work of creating the work under whose weight your body will succumb, he will have more liberty to apply all his faculties to the development and the consolidation of the edifice. Q. — Can you tell me whether the choice of my successor is already made?

A. — It is, without being so, given that man, having free will, may at the last moment recoil before the task he himself has chosen. It is also indispensable that he give proof of himself, of capacity, of devotion, of disinterestedness, and of abnegation. If he were to let himself be led merely by ambition and the desire to excel, he would certainly be set aside.

Q. — It has frequently been said that many Spirits would incarnate to aid the movement.

A. — Without doubt, many Spirits will have that mission, but each in his specialty, in order to act, by his position, upon this or that part of society. All will reveal themselves by their works and none by any pretension to supremacy.