An Israelite Spirit to his coreligionists

Our readers will recall the beautiful communication published in last March's issue, concerning the law of Moses and the law of Christ, signed by Mardochée and received by Mr. R…, of Mulhouse. This gentleman has received others, equally remarkable, from the same Spirit, which we will publish. The one we give below is from another relative, deceased some months ago. It was dictated on three different occasions.

TO ALL WHOM I KNEW.

I.

My friends, Be Spiritists, I beseech you all. Spiritism is the law of God; it is the law of Moses applied to the present age. When Moses gave the law to the children of Israel, he gave it just as God had given it to him, and God adapted it to the men of that time. But since then men have progressed; they have improved in every respect; they have made progress in science and in morality; today, each one knows how to conduct himself; each one knows what he owes to the Creator, to his neighbor, to himself. Today, then, it is necessary to broaden the foundations of teaching; what the law of Moses taught you no longer suffices to make Humanity advance, and God does not wish you to remain forever at the same point, for what was good five thousand years ago is no longer so today. When you wish your children to progress and desire to give them a somewhat more refined education, do you always send them to the same school, where they would learn only the same things? No; you send them to a higher school. Well then! The times have come, my friends, when God wishes to broaden the scope of your knowledge. Christ himself, although he made the Mosaic law advance a step, did not say everything, for he would not have been understood, but he sowed seeds that were to be gathered and put to use by future generations. God, in his infinite goodness, sends you today Spiritism, whose foundations rest, entirely, upon the biblical law and the evangelical law, to elevate you and teach you to love one another. Yes, my friends: the mission of Spiritism is to extinguish all hatreds, from man to man, from nation to nation; it is the dawn of universal fraternity that is rising; only with Spiritism can you attain a general and lasting peace. Arise, then, O peoples! stand up, for God, the Creator of all things, sends the Spirits of your relatives to open for you a new path, greater and broader than the one you still follow. Oh! my friends, do not be the last to yield to the evidence, for the hand of God will weigh upon the unbelievers, making the hardened disappear from the face of the Earth, so that they may not disturb the reign of good that is being prepared. Believe in the warnings of him who was and will always be your relative and your friend.

Let the Israelites take the lead! Let them swiftly and without delay display the banner that God sends to men, to gather them into a single family. Arm yourselves with courage and resolution; do not hesitate; do not stop before the laggards who would hold back your steps, speaking to you of sacrileges. No, my friends, there is no sacrilege; pity those who try to delay your march with such pretexts. Does not reason tell you that in this world there is nothing immutable? God alone is immutable; but all that He created must follow, and does follow, a progressive march, which nothing can stop, because it lies in the designs of the Creator. Thus, do not seek to prevent the Earth from turning!

The institutions, magnificent five thousand years ago, are today old; the purpose for which they were destined has been surpassed; they no longer suffice for present-day society, just as the old French regime would no longer serve the France of our days. A new progress is being prepared, without which all the other social improvements remain devoid of solid foundations: the progress of universal fraternity, whose seeds were sown by Christ and which germinate in Spiritism. Would you, then, be the last to enter this path? Do you not see that the old world is in the throes of labor to renew itself? Cast your eyes upon the map, I do not say of Europe, but of the world, and see in what manner, one by one, all the antiquated institutions fall, never to rise again. Why? It is the dawn of liberty that is rising, banishing despotisms of every kind, as the first rays of the Sun drive away the shadows of night. The peoples are weary of having been enemies; they understand that their happiness lies in fraternity and they wish to be free, because they cannot improve and become brothers as long as they are not free. Do you not recognize, at the head of a great people, an eminent man who is carrying out a mission marked by God and is preparing the way? Do you not hear the somber rumbling of the Old World, which is crumbling to give place to a new era? Soon you will see arise on the chair of Saint Peter a pontiff who will proclaim the new principles, and this belief, which will be that of all peoples, will gather the dissident sects into one and the same family. Be ready; hoist the banner of this teaching so great and so holy, that you may not be the last. Israelites of Bordeaux and of Bayonne, you who have marched at the forefront of progress, arise; acclaim Spiritism, for it is the law of the Lord, and bless it, for bringing you the means to reach more swiftly the eternal happiness that is destined for its elect.

II.

My friends, Do not be surprised on reading this communication. It comes from me, Edouard Pereyre, your relative, your friend, your compatriot. It was I myself who dictated it to my nephew Rodolphe, whose hand I hold to make him write in my handwriting. I undertake this work, fatiguing both to me and to the medium, in order to convince you better, for the intermediary must follow a movement contrary to the one habitual to him.

Yes, my friends, Spiritism is a new revelation; understand the reach of this word in all its meaning. It is a revelation because it unveils to you a new force of Nature, of which you had no suspicion and which, nevertheless, is as old as the world. It was known in the time of Moses, by the superior men of our religious history, and it was through it that you received the first teachings on the duties of man toward his Creator; but it gave only what was compatible with the men of that time.

Today, when progress has been made; when light is spreading among the masses; when the stupidity and ignorance of the first times are beginning to give way to reason and to moral sense; today, when the idea of God is understood by all, or at least by the majority, a new revelation is given, which is produced simultaneously among all the instructed peoples, a revelation which nevertheless is modified according to the degree of advancement of those peoples. Such revelation tells you that man does not die, that the soul survives the body and dwells in space; it is among you, at your side.

Yes, my friends; console yourselves when you lose a being who is dear to you, since you lose only his material body; his Spirit lives in your midst, to guide, instruct, and inspire you. Dry your tears, above all if he was good, charitable, and without pride, because, then, he is happy in that new world, where all religions blend into one and the same adoration, banishing the hatreds and the jealousies of sects. We too are happy, when we can inspire those same sentiments in men, whom we are charged with instructing, and our greatest happiness is to see you enter upon the good path, because, then, you open the door through which you will join us. Ask the medium what sublime teachings he receives from his grandfather Mardochée; if he follows the path traced out for him, he prepares for himself a future of happiness, but if he fails in his duties after such teaching, he will bear all the responsibility and will have to begin again until he has fulfilled his task in an acceptable manner. Yes, my friends; we have already lived corporeally and we will live again. The happiness we enjoy is only relative; there are states far superior to the one in which we are, and which are reached only through successive and progressive incarnations in other worlds. Do not think, therefore, that of all the globes of the Universe the Earth is the only one inhabited. Poor human pride, which thinks that God created all the heavenly bodies only to delight its sight! Know, then, that all the worlds are inhabited and, among them, if you knew the position the Earth occupies, you would have no reason to glorify yourselves! Were it not to fulfill the mission given to us, of inspiring and instructing you, how many of us would have preferred to visit those worlds and instruct ourselves! But our duties and our affections still bind us to the Earth. Later, when we yield our place to those who arrive last, we will go to take other existences in better worlds, purifying ourselves gradually until we reach God, our Creator. This is Spiritism. This is what it teaches, and this is the truth that you can understand today and that must help you to regenerate yourselves.

Understand well that all men are brothers, whether they be black or white, rich or poor, Muslims, Jews, or Christians. Since, in order to progress, they must be reborn several times, in accordance with the revelation made by Christ, God permits that those who were united in former lives by the bonds of blood or of friendship meet again on Earth, without knowing one another, but in conditions relative to the expiations they must endure for their past faults, so that he who is your servant may have been your master in another existence. The unfortunate one to whom you refuse assistance is perhaps one of your ancestors, of whom you are proud, or a friend who was dear to you. Do you now understand the reach of the commandment of the Decalogue: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”? This, my friends, is the revelation that must lead you to universal fraternity, when it is understood by all. This is why you must not remain immutable in your principles, but follow the march of progress traced by God, without ever stopping. This is why I have exhorted you to grasp the banner of Spiritism. Yes, be Spiritists, for it is the law of God, and remember that in this path lies happiness, because it is happiness that leads to perfection. I will sustain you, I and all those whom you knew, who, like me, act in the same direction. Let Spiritism be studied in every family; let mediums be formed in every family, in order to multiply the interpreters of the will of God. Do not let yourselves be discouraged by the hindrances of the first trials; often they are surrounded by difficulties and not always free from danger, for there will be no reward where there is not a little effort. You can all acquire this faculty; but study before attempting to obtain it, in order to guard yourselves against the obstacles. Purify yourselves of your stains; mend your heart and your thoughts to drive away from you the evil Spirits; pray, above all, for those who seek to obsess you, for it is prayer that converts them and frees you from them. May the experience of your predecessors be profitable to you and prevent you from falling into the same faults!

I will continue my instructions.

III.

The Israelite religion was the first that formulated, before the eyes of men, the idea of a spiritual God. Until then men worshipped: some, the Sun; others, the Moon; here, fire; there, animals. But nowhere was the idea of God represented in its spiritual and immaterial essence.

Moses came; he brought a new law, which overturned all the ideas received until then. He had to struggle against the Egyptian priests, who kept the peoples in the most absolute ignorance, in the most abject slavery, and against those priests, who drew from that state of things an unlimited power, and who could not see without terror the propagation of a new idea, which came to destroy the foundations of their power and threatened to overthrow them. That faith brought with it light, intelligence, and freedom of thought; it was a social and moral revolution. Thus, the adherents of that faith, recruited from among all the classes of Egypt, and not only among the descendants of Jacob, as has erroneously been said, were persecuted, harassed, subjected to the harshest vexations, and at last expelled from the country, because they infested the population with subversive and antisocial ideas. It is always thus, every time a progress arises on the horizon and shines upon Humanity. The same persecutions and the same treatments accompany the innovators who cast upon the soil of the new generation the fertile germs of progress and of morality. It is that every progressive innovation, in leading to the destruction of certain abuses, necessarily has for its enemies all those who are interested in the maintenance of those abuses. But God Almighty, who conducts with infinite wisdom the events from which progress must arise, inspired Moses; He gave him a power that no man had ever had, and, by the radiation of that power, whose effects struck the eyes of the most incredulous, Moses acquired an immense influence over a population which, trusting blindly in its destiny, accomplished one of those miracles whose impression was to be perpetuated from generation to generation, as an imperishable memory of the power of God and of his prophet.

The crossing of the Red Sea was the first act of the liberation of that people. But their education remained to be done; it was necessary to tame them by the force of reasoning and by miracles often repeated; it was necessary to instill in them faith and morality, teaching them to place their strength and confidence in a creator God, an immaterial being, infinitely good and just. The forty years of trials passed in the desert, amid privations, sufferings, and vicissitudes of every kind, and the examples of insubordination so severely repressed by a providential justice, all contributed to develop in them faith in that Almighty being, whose hand, now beneficent, now severe, punished whoever defied Him.

On Mount Sinai occurred this first revelation, this remarkable mystery, which astonished the world, subdued it, and spread over the Earth the first benefits of a morality that would free the Spirit from the clutches of the flesh and from a brutalizing despotism; that placed man above the sphere of animals, making of him a superior being, capable of raising himself, through progress, to the supreme intelligence.

The first steps of that people, which had entrusted its destiny to the man of God, were hindered by wars, whose effect was to be the fertile germ of a social renewal among the populations that fought against it. Judaism was becoming the focus of light, of intelligence, and of liberty, and radiated an extraordinary brilliance over all the neighboring nations, provoking hatred and hostility. This immediate result lay in the designs of God; without it, progress would have been very slow. And, at the same time that those wars fertilized the germs of progress, they were a discipline for the Jews, whose faith they revived.

That people; freed from another and trusting unreflectingly in the conduct of a man who had astonished it by virtue of a miraculous power, had a mission; it was a predestined people.

It is not without reason that it was said: it fulfilled a mission of which it did not give account, neither it nor the other peoples; it went blindly, executing without understanding the designs of Providence. That arid mission was full of gall and of bitterness; its apostles suffered every possible humiliation, they were persecuted, oppressed, stoned, and dispersed, although they carried with them that living and intelligent faith, that confidence in their God, whose power they had measured, whose goodness they had experienced, and whose trials they accepted, above all those that were to bring to Humanity the benefits of civilization.

Behold your obscure apostles, ridiculed, despised; behold the first pioneers of liberty. Will they have suffered enough, from their departure from Egypt down to our days?

The hour of rehabilitation will not be slow to sound for them, and not far off is the day that will salute those first soldiers of modern civilization, with gratitude and veneration; justice will be done to the descendants of those ancient families which, unshakable in their faith, carried it as a dowry to all the nations where God permitted them to be dispersed.

When Jesus Christ appeared, he was likewise an envoy of God; like Moses, he was a new star arising on the Earth, taking up his mission to give it continuity, to develop it and adapt it to the progress accomplished. Christ himself was destined to suffer that ignominious death, whose ways the Jews had prepared, setting in motion its circumstances, and whose crime was committed by the Romans. Cease, however, to consider the history of peoples and of men as you have considered it until today. In your pride, you imagine that it was they who provoked the events that changed the face of the world, and you forget that there is a God in the Universe, governing that admirable harmony, whose laws you endure, imagining that you impose them yourselves. Look, then, from a higher point upon the History of Humanity; embrace a vaster horizon and observe that everything follows a single system; the law of progress in each century, and not in each day, leads you to take a step. Jesus Christ was, then, the second phase, the second revelation, and his teachings took eighteen centuries to spread and to become widespread. By this, judge how slow progress is, and what men must have been when Moses brought to the astonished world the idea of an Almighty God, infinite and immaterial, whose power became visible to that people, for whom its mission brought so many thorns and so many disturbances. Progress is not accomplished without difficulty; it is at its own cost, it is through its sufferings and cruel vicissitudes that Humanity becomes aware of the aim of its destiny and of the power of him to whom it owes existence.

Therefore, Spiritism was the result of the second revelation. But has this doctrine, whose sublime morality Christ had brought and developed, been understood in its admirable simplicity? In what manner is it practiced by the greater part of those who profess it? Have they never diverted it from its aim? Have they never abused it, making it serve as an instrument of despotism, of ambition, and of cupidity? In a word, are all those who call themselves Christians so according to their founder? No! This is why they too had to pass through the alembic of misfortune, which purifies everything. The History of Christianity is too modern to recount all its vicissitudes; but, in short, the aim is near to being attained, the new dawn is about to break and, by different means, will make you march at a swifter pace along this path, where you took six thousand years to arrive.

Spiritism is the advent of an era that will see this revolution accomplished in the ideas of the peoples, since it will destroy those incomprehensible prejudices, those unmotivated preconceptions, which have accompanied and still follow the Jews in their long and painful pilgrimage. It will be understood that they suffered a providential destiny, of which they were the instruments, just as those who persecuted them with their hatred did so impelled by the same power, whose secret designs were to be accomplished by mysterious and unknown ways.

Yes, Spiritism is the third revelation. It reveals itself to a generation of more advanced men, bearers of the noblest aspirations, generous and humanitarian, which must contribute to universal fraternity. This is the new destiny marked by God for your efforts; but this result, like those already attained until today, will not be obtained without sorrows and without suffering. Let those arise who feel they have the courage to be its apostles; let them raise their voice, speak loud and clear and expound their doctrines; let them attack the abuses and show their aim. This aim is not the brilliant mirage that you pursue in vain; it is real and you will attain it at the time fixed by God. Perhaps it is distant, but there it is determined. Fear not; go, apostles of progress, march courageously, with brow lifted and heart resigned. You have for support a doctrine entirely free from mysteries, which appeals to the most beautiful virtues of the soul and offers that consoling certainty that the soul never dies, surviving death and torments. This, my friends, is the aim unveiled. You will ask: Who are the apostles? How shall we recognize them? God takes it upon Himself to make them known to you, by missions that will be entrusted to them and that they will carry out. You shall recognize them by their works, and not by the qualities they attribute to themselves. Those who receive missions from on high carry them out, but do not glorify themselves, because God chooses the humble to spread His word, and not the ambitious and the proud. By these signs you will recognize the false prophets.

Edouard Pereyre.