THE CHURCH.

Here you are back, my friend, and you have not wasted your time. To work again, then, for you must not let your anvil rust. Forge, forge well-tempered weapons; rest from the work done by undertaking more difficult labors. All the elements will be placed within your reach, as it becomes necessary.

The hour has come in which the Church must render account of the deposit that was confided to it, of the manner in which it practices the teachings of the Christ, of the use it made of its authority, in short, of the state of incredulity to which it led the Spirits. The hour has come in which it must give to Caesar what is Caesar's and assume the responsibility for all its acts. God has judged it, and has recognized it as unfit, from this point forward, for the mission of progress that is incumbent upon all spiritual authority. Only by means of an absolute transformation would it be possible for it to live; but will it resign itself to that transformation? No, for then it would no longer be the Church: to assimilate the truths and the discoveries of Science, it would have to renounce the dogmas that serve as its foundations; to return to the rigorous practice of the precepts of the Gospel, it would have to renounce power, domination, to exchange pomp and purple for apostolic simplicity and humility. It finds itself in this alternative: either it commits suicide, by transforming itself; or it succumbs in the clutches of progress, if it remains stationary. Moreover, it already shows itself full of anxiety, and in the Eternal City it is known, through undeniable revelations, that the Spiritist Doctrine will cause keen pain to the papacy, because in Italy the schism is being rigorously prepared. It is not, then, to be wondered at, the fierceness with which the clergy throws itself into the combat against Spiritism, impelled by the instinct of self-preservation. It has, however, already verified that its weapons are blunted against that power which is arising; its arguments have not been able to resist inflexible logic; there remains to it only the demon, its wretched auxiliary in the nineteenth century.

Furthermore, the struggle is opened between the Church and progress, more than between it and Spiritism. It is beaten along the whole line by the general progress of ideas and will succumb under its blows, like everything that departs from its level. The rapid march of things must make you sense that the outcome will not delay long. The Church itself seems fatally compelled to precipitate it.

Spirit of E.