Foreign communications read at the Society.

— The goodness of the Lord is eternal. He does not desire the death of His beloved children. But, O men! reflect that it depends on you to hasten the Kingdom of God on Earth or to delay its advent; that you are responsible for one another; that, by improving yourselves, you labor for the regeneration of Humanity. The task is great, the responsibility weighs upon each one and no one can exempt himself. Embrace with fervor the glorious task that the Lord imposes upon you, but ask Him to send laborers for His fields, because, as Christ told you, the harvest is great, but the laborers are few.

But behold, we are sent as laborers of your hearts. In them we sow the good grain. Take care not to smother it; water it with the tears of repentance and of joy. Of repentance, for having lived so long upon an earth cursed by the sins of the human race, far from the one true God, adoring the false pleasures of the world, which leave at the bottom of the cup only displeasures and sorrows. Weep for joy, because the Lord has granted you grace; because He wishes to hasten the arrival of the well-beloved children at the paternal bosom; because He desires that you all clothe yourselves with the innocence of the angels, as if you had never withdrawn from Him.

The only one who showed you the path by which you shall remount to this primitive glory; the only one whom you cannot reproach, for never having erred in his teachings; the only one just before God; the only one, finally, whom you must follow in order to be agreeable to God, is Christ. Yes, Christ, your divine master whom, for centuries, you forgot and failed to recognize. Love him, because he asks ceaselessly on your behalf; he wishes to come to your aid. What! Incredulity still resists! The wonders of Christ cannot beat it down! The wonders of all Creation remain impotent before those mocking Spirits; before this dust that cannot prolong its miserable existence by a single minute! Those scholars, who imagine they alone possess all the secrets of Creation, do not know whence they come, nor where they go, and yet they deny everything, defy everything. Because they know some of the most commonplace laws of the material world, they think they can judge the immaterial world, or rather, they say that nothing immaterial exists, that everything must obey those same material laws that they have managed to discover. But you, Christians! you know that you cannot deny our intervention without, at the same time, denying Christ and denying the whole Bible, for there is not a single page where you cannot find traces of the visible world in relation with the invisible world. Say, then: are you or are you not Christians?

Rembrandt. n

(ANOTHER, OBTAINED BY MR. PÊC…)

Every man has within himself that which you call an inner voice. It is what the Spirit calls conscience, a severe judge that presides over all the actions of your life. When man is alone, he hears that conscience and weighs things at their just value; frequently he is ashamed of himself. In that moment, he recognizes God; but ignorance, a fatal counselor, urges him on and puts upon him the mask of pride. He presents himself to you full of vanity, seeking to deceive you by the apparent equilibrium that he affects. But the man of upright heart does not hold his head haughtily. He listens with profit to the words of the wise man, he feels that he is nothing and that God is everything; he seeks to instruct himself in the book of Nature, written by the hand of the Creator. He elevates his Spirit, expels from his envelope the material passions that all too frequently lead you astray. A passion that dominates you is a dangerous guide. Remember this, friend; let the skeptic laugh: his laughter will be extinguished. In his true hour man becomes a believer. Thus, think always of God, for He alone does not err. Remember that there is only one path that leads to Him: faith, love of one's fellow beings. A member of the family.

[1]

[cf. Rembrandt.]