The finger of God

We have given you a glimpse of the dawn of human regeneration. In this, as in all the march of Humanity through the ages, you must see the finger of God.

We have already told you many times: All that happens here on Earth, like all that takes place in the entire Universe, is submitted to a general law: that of progress.

Bow before it, all of you who, proud and haughty, claim to place yourselves above the designs of the Almighty! Seek everywhere the cause of your misfortunes, as of your pleasures, and there you will always recognize the finger of God.

But, you will say, then the finger of God is fatalism! Ah! beware of confusing that impious word with the laws that Providence has imposed on you, that same Providence which must have left you free will, in order, at the same time, to leave you the merit of your acts, but which tempers their rigor by that voice, so often unrecognized, which warns you of the danger to which you expose yourselves.

Fatalism is the negation of duty, for, our lot being fixed beforehand, it is not for us to change it.

What would the world become with that horrible theory, which would abandon man to the perfidious suggestions of the worst passions? Where would be the aim of creation? where the reason for being of the admirable order that reigns in the Universe?

On the contrary, the finger of God is the punishment always suspended over the head of the guilty one; it is the remorse that gnaws the heart, reproaching it for its crimes at every instant of the day; it is the horrid nightmare that tortures it during long sleepless nights; it is that bloody trail that follows it everywhere, as if to reproduce before its eyes, incessantly, the image of its wickedness; it is the fever that torments the egoist; they are the perpetual anguish of the wicked rich man, who sees in all who approach him despoilers ready to rob him of an ill-acquired possession; it is the pain he experiences in his last hour at not being able to take with him his useless treasures! The finger of God is the peace of heart reserved for the just one; it is the gentle perfume that fills your soul after a good action; it is that sweet pleasure that one always experiences in doing good; it is the blessing of the poor man who is assisted; it is the sweet gaze of a child whose tears we have wiped; it is the fervent prayer of a poor mother, to whom has been provided the work that is to tear her from misery; it is, in a word, contentment with oneself. The finger of God, finally, is justice grave and austere, tempered by mercy! the finger of God is hope, which does not abandon man in his most cruel sufferings, which always consoles him and lets the most criminal one, whom repentance has touched, glimpse a corner of the celestial dwelling, from which he believed himself rejected forever!

Familiar Spirit.