Charity

— Be good and charitable: this is the key to heaven, a key that you hold in your own hands. All eternal happiness is contained in this precept: “Love one another.” The soul cannot rise to the high spiritual regions except through devotion to one’s neighbor; only in the raptures of charity does it find blessedness and consolation. Be good, support your brothers, set aside the hideous sore of selfishness. Once this duty is fulfilled, the path of eternal happiness will open before you. Besides, which among you has not yet felt his heart beat with joy, with intimate gladness, at the account of an act of beautiful devotion, of a truly charitable work? If you sought only the delight that a good action affords, you would always keep to the path of spiritual progress. Examples are not wanting to you; only good will is rare. Note that your History preserves the pious memory of a multitude of men of goodness. I could cite to you by the thousands those whose morality had no other aim than to improve your globe. Did not the Christ tell you all that concerns the virtues of charity and love? Why scorn his divine teachings? Why close your ear to his divine words, your heart to all his kindly precepts? I would wish that more interest, more faith were granted to the reading of the Gospels. Yet they scorn that book, they regard it as a repository of empty words, a sealed letter; they leave that admirable code in oblivion. Your ills all come from the voluntary abandonment to which you consign this summary of the divine laws. Read in it the sparkling pages of the devotion of Jesus, and meditate upon them. I myself feel ashamed to dare promise you a work on charity, when I consider that all the teachings that ought to lead you to the celestial regions are found in that book. Strong men, arm yourselves; weak men, make of your gentleness, of your faith, your weapons. Be more persuasive, more constant in the propagation of your new doctrine. It is only encouragement that we come to give you; it is only to stimulate your zeal and your virtues that God permits us to manifest ourselves to you. But if each one willed it, his own will and the help of God would suffice; the spiritist manifestations are produced only for those of closed eyes and unruly hearts. There are, among you, men who have missions of love and charity to fulfill: listen to them, exalt their voice; cause their merits to shine forth, and you yourselves will be exalted by the disinterestedness and the living faith with which they will penetrate you. The detailed admonitions that ought to be given to you, concerning the need to widen the circle of charity and to include in it all the unfortunate whose miseries are unknown; all the sorrows that, in the name of this doctrine — charity — must be sought out in their retreats in order to console them, would be very lengthy. I see with satisfaction that eminent and powerful men assist this progress, which is to unite all the human classes: the fortunate and the unfortunate. The unfortunate — a strange thing! — all join hands and help one another in their misery. Why are the fortunate slower to hear the voice of the unfortunate? Why do we need the hand of the powerful of the Earth to set the missions of charity in motion? Why do we not respond with more ardor to these appeals? Why do we let misery, as well as pleasure, stain the picture of Humanity? Charity is the fundamental virtue upon which the whole edifice of earthly virtues must rest. Without it the others do not exist. Without charity there is no hope of a better lot, there is no moral interest to guide us; without charity there is no faith, for faith is no more than the pure luminosity that makes a charitable soul shine; it is its decisive consequence.

When you let your heart open to the entreaty of the first unfortunate who stretches out his hand to you; when you give him something, without questioning whether his misery is not feigned or whether his ill comes from a vice he himself caused; when you abandon all justice into the divine hands; when you leave the punishment of false miseries to the Creator; when, at last, you practice charity solely for the happiness it affords and without inquiring into its usefulness, then you will be the beloved children of God and he will draw you to himself. Charity is, in all worlds, the eternal anchor of salvation; it is the purest emanation of the Creator himself; it is his own virtue, given by him to the creature. How can one scorn this supreme goodness? What heart, aware of this, is perverse enough to repress within itself and expel this wholly divine sentiment? What child is wicked enough to rebel against this sweet caress: charity?

I do not dare speak of what I have done, because Spirits too have the modesty of their works; yet I consider the one I began to be one of those that will most contribute to the relief of your fellow beings. I often see Spirits asking that it be given to them, as a mission, to continue my task. I see them, my kind and dear sisters, in the pious and divine ministry; I see them practicing the virtue I commend to you, with all the joy that derives from an existence of devotion and sacrifice. Immense is my happiness at seeing how much their character honors them, how esteemed and protected is the mission they carry out. Men of goodness, of good and firm will, unite to continue broadly the work of propagating charity; in the very exercise of this virtue you will find your reward; there is no spiritual joy that it does not already afford in the present life. Be united, love one another, according to the precepts of the Christ. So be it. Saint Vincent de Paul. n

— We thank Saint Vincent de Paul for the beautiful and good communication he deigned to give us. — I would wish it to be profitable to all.

Would you permit us to formulate some further questions regarding what you have just said?

Answer. – I greatly desire it; my aim is to enlighten you; ask what you will.

Charity can be understood in two ways: alms properly so called and love of one’s fellow beings. When you said that it was necessary for the heart to open to the entreaty of the unfortunate who stretches out his hand to us, without our questioning whether his misery might be feigned, did you not mean to speak of charity from the point of view of alms?

Answer. – Yes; only in that paragraph.

You said that it was necessary to leave the appraisal of false misery to the justice of God. It seems to us, however, that to give without discernment to persons who have no need, or who could earn a living by honest work, would be to encourage vice and idleness. If idlers found the purse of others opened too easily, they would multiply to infinity, to the detriment of the truly unfortunate.

Answer. – You can discern those who are able to work, and then charity obliges you to do everything to provide them with work; yet there also exist false poor, capable of skillfully simulating miseries they do not have; it is for such as these that one must leave all justice to God.

He who can give only a penny, and who must choose between two unfortunates who ask of him, has he no reason to inquire which, in fact, has the greater need, or should he give without examination to the first who appears?

Answer. – He should give to the one who appears to suffer most.

Should not the manner in which charity is done also be considered as part of it?

Answer. – It is above all in the manner of doing charity that its greatest merit lies; kindness is always the sign of a beautiful soul.

What kind of merit do you grant to those whom we call benefactors of occasion?

Answer. – They do good only by halves. Their benefits profit them nothing.

Jesus said: “Let not your right hand know what your left hand does.” Have those who give for ostentation any merit?

Answer. – Only the merit of pride, for which they will be punished.

In its broadest sense, does not Christian charity equally comprise gentleness, benevolence, and indulgence toward the weaknesses of others?

Answer. – Imitate Jesus; he told you all this. Listen to him more than ever. n

Is charity well understood when practiced exclusively among persons who profess the same opinion or belong to the same party?

Answer. – No. It is above all the spirit of sect and of party that must be abolished, since all men are brothers. It is upon this question that we concentrate our efforts.

Let us suppose that someone sees two men in danger, but can save only one. Which of the two should he save, considering that one of them is his friend and the other is his enemy?

Answer. – He should save the friend, for this friend could accuse him of not caring for him; as for the other, God will take charge.

[1] Translator’s note: This instruction of Saint Vincent de Paul, with some modifications that abridged it, was inserted by Allan Kardec into The Gospel According to Spiritism. It corresponds, in the definitive edition of 1866, to chapter XIII, item 12.

[2] [cf.

Saint Vincent de Paul.]

[3] Translator’s note: See question 886 of The Spirits’ Book.