Family Counsels.

— Our readers will certainly remember the article we published last September, under the title A Spiritist Family. The following communications are very similar. Indeed, they are counsels dictated in an intimate gathering by an eminently superior and benevolent Spirit. They are distinguished by the charm and the sweetness of their style, the profundity of their thoughts, and, moreover, by shades of extreme delicacy, appropriate to the age and character of the persons to whom they were addressed. Mr. Rabache, a merchant of Bordeaux, who served as intermediary, was kind enough to authorize their publication. We can only congratulate the mediums who obtain such things. It is a proof that they have happy sympathies in the invisible world.

Chateau de Pechbusque, November 1859.

(First session.)

The protecting Spirit of the family was asked whether he could give some counsels to the members present; he replied:

Yes. Have confidence in God and seek to instruct yourselves in the immutable and eternal truths that the divine book of Nature teaches you. It contains the whole law of God, and those who know how to read and understand it are the only ones who follow the true path of wisdom. Let nothing that you see be neglected, for each thing carries within it a teaching and must, through the use of reasoning, raise the soul toward God and bring it nearer to Him. In all that strikes the intelligence, always seek to distinguish good from evil: the first, in order to practice it; the second, in order to avoid it. Before forming a judgment, always turn your thought toward the ETERNAL, who will guide you to the good, AND WILL NEVER DECEIVE YOU.

(Second session.)

Good evening, my children. If you love me, seek to instruct yourselves; gather together often with this thought. Put your ideas in common: it is an excellent means, for in general we communicate only the things we judge to be good; we are ashamed of the bad ones. Thus, they are kept secret or are communicated only to those whom we wish to make accomplices. Good thoughts are distinguished from bad ones, because the former can, without any fear, be transmitted to everyone, whereas the latter could not, without danger, be communicated except to a few. When a thought comes to you, in order to judge its value ask yourselves whether you can make it public without inconvenience and whether it will do no harm: if your conscience authorizes it, fear not, your thought is good. Give one another good counsels, having in view only the good of the one to whom you give them, and not your own. Your reward will lie in the pleasure you will experience for having been useful. The union of hearts is the most fruitful source of happiness; and if many men are unhappy, it is because they seek happiness only for themselves. It escapes them precisely because they think to find it only in egoism. I say happiness and not fortune, for the latter has served only as a support for injustice, and the aim of existence is justice. If justice were practiced among men, the most fortunate would be the one who accomplished the greatest sum of good works. If, then, you wish to become rich, my children, practice many good actions. The goods of the world matter little; it is not the satisfaction of the flesh that one must seek, but that of the soul. The former is ephemeral; the latter is eternal. For today this is enough. Meditate on these counsels and strive to put them into practice: therein lies the path of salvation.

(Third session.)

Yes, my children, here I am. Have confidence in God, who never abandons those who do good. That which you judge to be an evil is sometimes such only in relation to your conceptions. Often, too, the real evil comes only from a discouragement caused by a difficulty, which calmness of spirit and reflection would have avoided. Thus, always reflect and, as I have already told you, refer everything to God. When you experience any sorrow, far from abandoning yourselves to sadness, on the contrary, resist and make every effort to triumph, thinking that nothing is obtained without labor, and that success is sometimes accompanied by difficulties. Call to your aid the benevolent Spirits. They cannot, as they teach you, do good works in your place, nor obtain anything from God for you, for it is necessary that each one gain, by himself, the perfection to which we are all destined; but they can inspire good in you, suggest fitting conduct to you, and help you with their assistance. They do not manifest themselves ostensibly, but in recollection. Listen to the voice of your conscience, remembering my preceding counsels. Confidence in God, calmness, and courage.

(Fourth session.)

Good evening, my children. Yes, it is necessary to continue the sessions, until a medium manifests himself, to replace the one who must leave you. His role as initiator among you is fulfilled: continue what you have begun, because you too will one day serve the propagation of the truth which, at this moment, is proclaimed throughout the world by the Spiritist manifestations. Persuade yourselves, my children, that, in general, what is understood on Earth by Spirit is Spirit only for you. After this Spirit, or soul, separates itself from the coarse matter that envelops it, for you it no longer has a body, because your material eyes no longer see it. But it is always matter, relatively to those who are more elevated than it. For you, children, I am going to make a very imperfect comparison, but which, nevertheless, may give you an idea of the transformation that you improperly call death. Imagine a caterpillar, which you see daily. When the time of its existence in that state is exhausted, it transforms into a chrysalis; it spends some more time as such and then, when the moment arrives, it strips off its coarse envelope and gives rise to a butterfly, which flies. Now, the caterpillar, in leaving its inferior nature, represents the man who dies; the butterfly symbolizes the soul that rises. The caterpillar crawls along the ground, the butterfly flies toward the sky; it has changed matter, but is still material. If the caterpillar could reason, it would not see the butterfly which, meanwhile, would have emerged from the rotted shell of the chrysalis. Therefore, the body cannot see the soul, but the soul, enveloped by matter, has consciousness of its existence, and the materialist himself sometimes feels it inwardly. Then his pride prevents him from agreeing, and he remains with his science without belief, without elevating himself, until at last doubt comes to him. Not everything, however, is over, because in him the struggle is greater. It will be only a question of time, because, my friends, remember that all the children of God were created for perfection. Happy are those who do not lose time along the way. Eternity is composed of two periods: that of the trial, which might be called incubation, and that of the hatching, or entry into true life, which you call the happiness of the elect. (Fifth session.)

My dear children, I see with satisfaction that you are beginning to reflect on the warnings and counsels that I give you. I know that for the present development of your intelligence, there is, all at once, much matter for reflection; nevertheless, I must take advantage of the occasion that presents itself, for, within a few days this means will no longer be at my disposal, and it was necessary to strike your imagination in such a way as to suggest to you the desire to continue your sessions, until some one of you might be able to replace the present medium. I hope that these few sessions, upon which I urge you to meditate at length, will have sufficed to awaken your attention and the desire to delve more deeply into this vast field of investigation. Take as a rule never to seek the satisfaction of vain curiosity, but rather to instruct and perfect yourselves. It is useless to concern yourselves with the difference that may exist between what I will teach you and what you know or think you know. Each time an instruction is given to you, ask whether it is just and whether it answers the demands of conscience and equity. When the answer is affirmative, do not trouble yourselves to know whether it agrees with what may have been told to you. What does that matter to you! What is important is the just, the conscientious, and the equitable: all that unites these conditions is of God. To obey a good conscience, to do only useful things, to avoid all things that, while not being bad, have no utility — this is the essential thing; for to do something useless is already to do evil. Avoid giving scandal, even by your own improvement: there are situations in which the mere sight of your change may produce a bad effect; thus, for example, the light of day could not, without danger, suddenly strike the sight of a man shut up in a dark prison. Let your progress, then, not be given over to scrutiny, except as wisdom advises you. Perfect yourselves always; you will see it only when it is time. Those for whom I write this counsel understand it, without my having to be more explicit. Their conscience will tell them. Courage, then, and perseverance! These are the only laws of success.

Remark. — The last counsel could not have a general application. Evidently the Spirit had a special one in view, as he himself said; otherwise, we might be mistaken as to the meaning and the scope of his words.

[Review of February 1860.]

FAMILY COUNSELS.

Continuation. (See the January issue. — Read at the Society on January 20, 1860.)

My dear children: In my preceding instructions I counseled you to calmness and courage; yet not all of you show them as much as you should. Consider that lamentation never soothes pain: on the contrary, it tends to increase it. A good counsel, a good word, a smile, a simple gesture, give strength and courage. A tear softens the heart, instead of hardening it. Weep, if your heart impels you to it, preferably in moments of solitude, and not in the presence of those who need all their strength and all their energy, which a tear or a sigh may diminish or weaken. We all need encouragement, and nothing is more apt to encourage us than a friendly voice, a benevolent look, a word coming from the heart. When I counseled you to gather together, it was not so that you would gather your tears and bitterness; it was not to incite you to prayer, which proves only a good intention, but rather so that you would unite your thoughts, your mutual and collective efforts; so that you would give one another good counsels and seek, in common, not the means of saddening yourselves, but the course to follow in order to overcome the obstacles that present themselves before you. In vain will an unfortunate man who has no bread throw himself on his knees to beg of God the food that will not fall from the sky. Let him work and, however little he obtains, that will be worth more than all his prayers. The prayer most agreeable to God is useful labor, whatever it may be. I repeat it: Prayer proves a good intention, a good sentiment, but it can produce only a moral effect, since it is entirely moral. It is excellent as a consolation of the soul, for the soul that prays sincerely finds in prayer a relief for its moral sorrows: apart from these effects and those that flow from prayer, as I have already explained to you in other instructions, expect nothing, for you will be deceived in your hope. Follow, then, exactly my counsels. Do not content yourselves with asking God to help you: help yourselves, for thus you will prove the sincerity of your prayer. It would be very convenient, in truth, if it were enough to ask for a thing in prayer for it to be granted to you! It would be the greatest incitement to laziness and to the neglect of good actions. I could dwell still further on this subject, but it would be too much for you. Your state of advancement does not allow it. Meditate on this instruction, as on the preceding ones: they are capable of occupying your Spirits for a long time, for they contain in germ all that will be unveiled to you in the future. Follow my earlier counsels. n [1] Translator's Note: The Spirit who dictated the message did not give his name.