Concerning the Imitation of the Gospel

A new book has just appeared; it is a more brilliant light that comes to illumine your march. Eighteen centuries ago, by order of my Father, I came to bring the word of God to men of good will. This word was forgotten by the majority of men, and incredulity, materialism, came to smother the good seed I had deposited upon your Earth. Today, by order of the Eternal, the good Spirits, His messengers, come to all points of the globe to make the resounding trumpet be heard. Listen to their voices; they are destined to show you the path that leads to the feet of the celestial Father. Be docile to their teachings; the foretold times have come; all the prophecies shall be fulfilled.

By its fruits one knows the tree. See what the fruits of Spiritism are: couples in whom discord had replaced harmony have returned to peace and happiness; men who were succumbing under the weight of their afflictions, awakened by the melodious chords of the voices from beyond the tomb, have understood that they were following the wrong path and, ashamed of their weaknesses, have repented and asked the Lord for strength to bear their trials.

Trials and expiations, such is the condition of man on Earth. Expiation of the past, trials to fortify him against temptation, to develop the Spirit through the activity of the struggle, to accustom him to dominate matter and to prepare him for the pure joys that await him in the world of the Spirits.

There are many dwellings in my Father’s house, I said to them eighteen centuries ago. Spiritism has come to render these words comprehensible. And you, my well-beloved, laborers who bear the heat of the day, who believe you have cause to lament the injustice of fate, bless your sufferings; give thanks to God, who gives you the means to acquit the debts of the past. Pray, not with the lips, but with the heart made better, so that you may occupy a better place in my Father’s house. As you know, the great shall be humbled, but the small and the humble shall be exalted.

The Spirit of Truth. n Observation – It is known that we do not take into consideration the name of the beings who communicate, above all those who present themselves under venerable names. We do not guarantee this signature any more than many others, limiting ourselves to delivering this communication to the appreciation of every enlightened Spiritist. We will say, however, that one cannot deny the elevation of the thought, the nobility and simplicity of the expressions, the sobriety of the language, and the absence of all superfluity. If one compares it to those given in the Imitation of the Gospel (preface and chapter III: The Christ Consoler), and which bear the same signature, although obtained by different mediums and at different times, one notes between them a striking analogy of tone, of style, and of thoughts, which point to a single origin. For our part, we say that it may be from the Spirit of Truth, because it is worthy of him, whereas we have seen masses of them signed with this venerable name or that of Jesus, whose prolixity, verbosity, vulgarity, sometimes even the triviality of the ideas, betray the apocryphal origin to the eyes of the least clear-sighted. Only a complete fascination can explain the blindness of those who let themselves be caught, when it is not, also, the pride of believing oneself infallible and a privileged interpreter of the pure Spirits, a pride always punished, sooner or later, by disappointments, ridiculous mystifications, and by real misfortunes in this life. At the sight of these venerable names, the first sentiment of the modest medium is that of doubt, because he does not judge himself worthy of such a favor. [1]

[v.

Spirit of Truth.]