Spiritist and Christian concordance

The following letter was addressed to the Society for Spiritist Studies by Dr. de Grand-Boulogne, former vice-consul of France.

Mr. President, Ardently desiring to be part of the Parisian Society for Spiritist Studies, but compelled to leave France shortly, I come to request the honor of being accepted as a corresponding member. I have the advantage of knowing you personally, and I need not tell you with what interest and sympathy I follow the Society's labors. I have read your works, as well as those of Baron de Guldenstubbé, and consequently I know the fundamental points of Spiritism, whose principles I sincerely adopt, just as they are taught to you. As I here affirm my firm will to live and die as a Christian, this declaration leads me to make to you my profession of faith, and perhaps you will see with what interest my religious faith naturally welcomes the principles of Spiritism. In my opinion, here is how the two things are joined together:

God: creator of all things.

The aim and end of all created beings: to contribute to universal harmony.

In the created universe, three principal kingdoms: the material, or inert, kingdom; the organic, or vital; the intellectual and moral.

Everything is created and submitted to laws.

The beings comprised in the first two kingdoms obey irresistibly, and through them harmony is never disturbed.

Like the first two, the third kingdom is submitted to laws, but enjoys the strange power of withdrawing itself from them; it possesses the fearsome faculty of disobeying God: this is what constitutes free will.

Man belongs simultaneously to the three kingdoms: he is an incarnate Spirit.

The laws that govern the moral world are formulated in the decalogue, but they are summed up in this admirable precept of Jesus: Love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself.

Every derogation of the law constitutes a disturbance in universal harmony. Now, God does not permit such a disturbance to persist, and order must necessarily be reestablished.

There exists a law destined for the reparation of disorder in the moral world, and this law is contained entirely in the word: expiation.

Expiation is effected: 1st – by repentance and acts of virtue; 2nd – by repentance and trials; 3rd – by the prayers and trials of the righteous, united to the repentance of the guilty.

The prayer and the trials of the righteous, although they contribute in the most efficacious manner to universal harmony, are insufficient for the absolute expiation of the fault; God requires the repentance of the sinner; but with that repentance, the prayer of the righteous and his penitence on behalf of the guilty suffice for eternal justice, and the crime is pardoned.

The life and death of Jesus place this adorable truth in evidence.

Without free will there is no sin, but neither is there virtue.

What is virtue? Courage in good.

What is most beautiful in the world is not, as a philosopher said, the spectacle of a great soul struggling against adversity; it is the perpetual effort of a soul progressing in good and, from virtue to virtue, raising itself up to the Creator.

Which is the most beautiful of all virtues? Charity.

What is charity? It is the special attribute of the soul which, in its ardent aspirations toward good, forgets itself and is consumed in efforts for the happiness of its neighbor.

Knowledge is far below charity; it raises us in the spiritist hierarchy, but it does not contribute to the reestablishment of the order disturbed by the wicked. Knowledge expiates nothing, redeems nothing, has no influence whatsoever on the justice of God: charity, on the contrary, expiates and appeases. Knowledge is a quality; charity, a virtue.

In incarnating the Spirits, what was God's design? To create, for a part of the spiritual world, a situation without which none of the great virtues that fill us with respect and admiration would exist. Indeed, without suffering there is no charity; without danger there is no courage; without misfortune there is no devotion; without persecution there is no stoicism; without anger there is no patience, etc. Now, without corporeality, with the disappearance of these evils, these virtues would disappear. For the man somewhat detached from the bonds of matter, in this ensemble of good and evil there is a harmony, a grandeur of a higher order than the harmony and grandeur of the exclusively material world.

This responds in a few words to the objections founded on the incompatibility of evil with the goodness and justice of God.

It would be necessary to write volumes upon volumes to develop these various propositions properly. Nevertheless, the objective of this communication is not to offer the Society a philosophical and religious thesis; I merely wished to formulate a few Christian truths in harmony with the Spiritist Doctrine. In my opinion, such truths constitute the fundamental basis of religion and, far from being weakened, are fortified by the spiritist revelations. I also permit myself to express a complaint against the ministers of worship who, blinded by demonophobia, refuse enlightenment and condemn without examination. If Christians opened their ears to the revelations of the Spirits, everything in religious teaching that disturbs our hearts or revolts our reason would suddenly vanish. Without being modified in its essence, religion would broaden the circle of its dogmas, and the gleams of the new truth would console and illuminate souls. If it is true, as Father Ventura says, that philosophical or religious doctrines invincibly end by being translated into the ordinary acts of life, it is quite evident that a nation initiated into Spiritism would become the most admirable and the happiest of nations. It will be said that a truly Christian society would be perfectly happy. I agree. But religious teaching is done as much through fear as through love; and men, dominated by their passions, wishing at any price to free themselves from the dogmas that threaten them, will always be so numerous that the group of persevering Christians will always constitute a feeble minority. Christians are numerous, but true Christians are rare. It does not happen so with spiritist teaching. Although its morality merges with that of Christianity and, like the latter, pronounces threatening words, there is in it so rich a treasure of consolations; it is, at the same time, so logical and so practical; it casts so intense a light upon our destiny; it so thoroughly drives away the shadows that disturb reason and the perplexities that torment hearts, that, in truth, it seems impossible for a sincere Spiritist to neglect for a single day to work for his progress and, thus, not to contribute to reestablishing the harmony disturbed by the overflow of selfish and covetous passions. It may therefore be affirmed that, in propagating the truths that we have the happiness of knowing, we work for Humanity, and our work will be blessed by God. For a people to be happy, it is necessary that the number of those who want good, who practice the law of charity, surpass that of those who want evil and practice only selfishness. I believe in my soul and am conscious that Spiritism, supported by Christianity, is called to bring about this revolution. Imbued with such sentiments and wishing, to the measure of my strength, to contribute to the happiness of my fellow beings, while at the same time I seek to become better, I ask, Mr. President, to be part of your Society.

Accept, etc.

De Grand-Boulogne, doctor of Medicine, Former Vice-Consul of France.

Observation. – This letter dispenses with commentary, and each one will appreciate the lofty scope of the principles formulated in it, in a manner at once so profound, so simple, and so clear. These are the principles of true Spiritism, which certain men dare to ridicule, since they claim the privilege of reason and good sense, while not knowing whether they have a soul and making no distinction between it and the future of a machine. We shall add only one observation: Properly understood, Spiritism is the safeguard of the truly religious ideas that are dying out; by contributing to the improvement of creatures, it will bring about, by the force of things, the improvement of the masses, and the time is not far off when men will come to understand that in this doctrine they will find the most fruitful element of order, well-being, and prosperity of peoples; and this for a very simple reason: it is that it destroys materialism, which develops and feeds selfishness, a perpetual source of social struggles, and gives it a reason for being. A society whose members were guided by love of neighbor, which inscribed charity on the frontispiece of all its codes, would be happy and would soon see hatreds and discords extinguished. Spiritism can accomplish this prodigy and will do so, despite those who still attack it, for the aggressors will pass away, but Spiritism will remain. [see Letter from a Catholic on Spiritism, by Dr. Grand.]