Pauperism

In vain do the philanthropists of the Earth dream of things that they will never see realized. Remember these words of Christ: “You will always have the poor among you,” for you know that these are words of truth. My friend, now that you know Spiritism, do you not find just and equitable that inequality of conditions, which made your hearts rise up, full of murmuring against that God who had not made all men equally rich and happy? Well then! Now that you know that God acted with wisdom in all that he did and that poverty is a chastisement or a trial, seek to soften it, but do not lay hold of utopias to make the unfortunate dream of an impossible equality. Certainly, by a wise social organization, it is possible to alleviate many sufferings; that is what one must aim at. But to claim that all will come to disappear from the face of the Earth is a chimerical idea. The Earth being a place of expiation, there will always be poor who expiate in this trial the abuse of the goods of which God had made them dispensers, and who never experienced the satisfaction of doing good to their brothers; who hoarded coin upon coin to accumulate riches useless to themselves and to others; who despoiled widows and orphans in order to enrich themselves. Oh! these are very guilty and their egoism will turn against them! Guard yourselves, however, from seeing in all the poor guilty ones in punishment. If, for some, poverty is a severe expiation, for others it is a trial that must open to them more rapidly the sanctuary of the elect. Yes, there will always be poor and rich, so that some may have the merit of resignation, and others that of charity and devotion. Whether you be rich or poor, you walk over a slippery ground, which can hurl you into the abyss, on the descent of which only your virtues can hold you back.

When I say that there will always be poor on Earth, I mean that as long as there are vices, which make of it a place of expiation for perverse Spirits, God will send them to incarnate themselves there, for their own chastisement and that of the living. Merit, by your virtues, that God send to you only good Spirits, and of a hell you will make a terrestrial paradise.

Adolphe, bishop of Algiers. n [1]

[v.

Antoine-Adolphe Dupuch.]