Many are called, few are chosen

This evangelical maxim should apply with much greater reason to present times than to the early days of Christianity.

Indeed, do you not already hear the noise of the tempest that is to sweep away the old world and plunge into nothingness the whole of earthly iniquities? Ah! bless the Lord, you who have placed your faith in His sovereign justice and who, new apostles of the belief revealed by the prophetic higher voices, are going to preach the new dogma of reincarnation and of the elevation of the Spirits, according to whether they have fulfilled, well or ill, their missions and borne their earthly trials. Be afraid no longer! The tongues of fire are upon your heads. O true adherents of Spiritism!… you are the chosen of God! Go and preach the divine word. The hour has come when you must sacrifice to its propagation your habits, your labors, your futile occupations. Go and preach. With you are the elevated Spirits. Certainly you will speak to creatures who will not wish to listen to the voice of God, because that voice ceaselessly exhorts them to self-denial. You will preach disinterestedness to the avaricious, abstinence to the dissolute, gentleness to domestic tyrants as well as to despots! Wasted words, I know it; but no matter. It is necessary that you water with your sweat the ground where you are to sow, for it will not bear fruit nor produce except under the repeated blows of the evangelical hoe and plow. Go and preach! O all you men of good faith, conscious of your inferiority in the face of the worlds disseminated throughout the Infinite!… cast yourselves into a crusade against injustice and iniquity. Go and proscribe that cult of the golden calf, which spreads more each day. Go, God guides you! Simple and ignorant men, your tongues will be loosed and you will speak as no orator speaks. Go and preach, for attentive populations will gather with joy your words of consolation, of fraternity, of hope, and of peace. What matter the ambushes set for you along the way! Only wolves fall into traps set for wolves, for the shepherd will know how to defend his sheep from the immolating fires.

Go, men who, great before God, more fortunate than Thomas, believe without insisting on seeing and accept the facts of mediumship, even when you have not managed to obtain them by yourselves; go, the Spirit of God leads you.

March, then, forward, phalanx imposing by your faith and by your small number! March! Before you the great battalions of unbelievers will scatter, like the morning mist at the first rays of the rising Sun.

Faith is the virtue that moves mountains, said Jesus. Yet, heavier than the greatest mountains, there lie deposited in the hearts of men impurity and all the vices that derive from impurity. Set out, then, full of courage, to remove that mountain of iniquities which future generations should know only as legend, just as you, who know only very imperfectly the times that preceded pagan civilization.

Yes, at every point of the globe, the moral and philosophical subversions are going to take place; the hour approaches when the divine light will be spread over the two worlds.

Go, then, and carry the divine word: to the great who will scorn it, to the learned who will demand proofs, to the small and simple who will accept it; because, especially among the martyrs of labor, of this earthly trial, you will find fervor and faith. Go; these will receive, with hymns of gratitude and praises to God, the holy consolation that you will bring them, and they will bow their brows, rendering Him thanks for the afflictions that the Earth destines for them. Let your phalanx arm itself with decision and courage! To work! the plow is ready; the earth waits; plow!

Go and thank God for the glorious task He has entrusted to you; but, attention! among those called to Spiritism many have strayed; mend, therefore, your path and follow the truth.

Q. – If, among those called to Spiritism, many have strayed, what are the signs by which we shall recognize those who are on the good path?

Answer. – You will recognize them by the principles of true charity that they will teach and practice. You will recognize them by the number of the afflicted to whom they bring consolation; you will recognize them by their love for their neighbor, by their self-denial, by their personal disinterestedness; you will recognize them, finally, by the triumph of their principles, because God wills the triumph of His law; those who follow His law, these are the chosen, and He will give them the victory; but He will destroy those who falsify the spirit of that law and make of it a stepping-stone to satisfy their vanity and their ambition. Erastus. n Guardian angel of the medium.

[1] Translator's note: Under the title “Mission of the Spiritists,” Allan Kardec inserted this message, authored by the Spirit Erastus, in chapter XX, item 4, of his The Gospel According to Spiritism.

[2] [cf.

Thomas Erastus.]