An Angel of Heaven on Earth

Here is the testimony given about this work at the Spiritist Society of Paris, by our colleague Mr. Feyteau, attorney:

Under this title, Mr. Benjamin Mossé has written a book full of poetry, in which, from the twofold point of view, charity is progressively taught through the most touching facts. The subject of this little poem in prose begins in Heaven, develops on Earth, and ends in Heaven, where it began.

The angels, the archangels, the cherubim and the seraphim, all the sacred beings — these are Mr. Mossé's expressions — are gathered together and sing praises to the Most High, who has assembled them in order to give them the mission of going among the souls of Earth, so as to lead them back to the path of good, from which earthly appetites and passions ceaselessly divert them.

One of these angels, the purest, was the only one to remain after the departure of all the others. This angel is Zadecia. Prostrate at the foot of the throne of the Eternal, she implores for herself the favor of an exception to the general rule imposed upon her brothers; she said, beseechingly: “Lord, hear my prayer, before I obey your voice! I am about to descend to Earth, according to your will. With sorrow I leave, since you command it, the happiness with which you flood us; I am going to speak of this to the inhabitants of the lower dwelling; I am going to inspire in them hope, to sustain them in their painful march. But deign to grant to my supplications the grace I implore of you! Allow, O my God, that, removed from your palace, I may never forget its delights! Allow that the envelope with which I am about to clothe myself may never serve as an obstacle to my flights toward you! May I always remain mistress of myself; may nothing impure ever come to alter my nobility! Allow, Lord, that my absence from the blessed mansion may not be of long duration! Allow that my mission be promptly accomplished; that I may warm at my flame a generous heart; that I may captivate with my charms that heart already blessed by your hand; that my love may elevate it, perfect it, complete its virtue, so that it may receive my inspirations, accept my message, and become for Humanity a consolation, a light, and that then I may, O my God, return to my celestial dwelling, happy to have left on Earth a noble continuator of my mission, animated by my gaze, adoring my image, and ever rising toward me, so as to draw from my bosom the strength to continue his work, for the realization of which I lavished upon him the encouragement of my love, until the hour when, by your will, he comes to meet me and to receive in my arms, at the foot of your throne, your eternal blessings.” — “I exalt your prayer, my daughter!” the divine voice answered her. “Go, go without fear, to bring to men the treasures of your flame. The fire that animates you will lose nothing of its holiness on Earth, where your passage will be swift, where a soul worthy of you has already taken on an earthly envelope to fulfill the great mission you wish to entrust to it. As ardent as it is pure, it will be ennobled by your love; it will be sanctified by your presence, by the bonds that will unite it to your immortal destiny. In that union, which I bless beforehand, that soul will receive your mission, from which it will redeem itself as you yourself will. Then you will rise again to the supreme regions, from where you will watch over your beloved spouse of Earth, who will become, his task finished, your beloved spouse in Heaven!” At these words, Zadecia descended radiant from the infinite dwellings to the midst of men; she kissed the brow of the child whom she was later to draw to herself in marriage; then, submitting to the necessary conditions of earthly existence, she enveloped herself in a material form, in which her beauty was to shine and her virtues and her charms to resplend!

It is in these particularly blessed conditions that the soul of Zadecia undertakes her mission, the first phase of which is her incarnation in the creature to whom a young mother painfully gave birth. In the second phase of her mission, Zadecia is an angel of innocence, and her beauty, which radiates like a divine emanation, purifies everything that approaches her. In the third phase, Zadecia is the angel of resignation through the patience with which she bears physical sufferings. In the fourth, she is an angel of piety through the examples of charity and self-denial that she gives. In the fifth, she is the angel of love, through the sympathetic affection that develops between her and the young Azariel. In the sixth, she is the angel of conjugal love through her union with Azariel. In the seventh, she is the angel of maternal love. The eighth phase, finally, is her return to Heaven, leaving on Earth her spouse and her daughter, to continue her work of sanctification. Undoubtedly, these various tableaux contain edifying examples and make attractive reading; but Zadecia's all-too-foreseen triumph over all the trials to which she is subjected in her incarnation deprives it of that character of useful teaching, which cannot really result except from the efforts of the struggle. This situation in which Zadecia finds herself, upon leaving Heaven, of preserving the purity and incorruptibility of the angels, scarcely arouses interest in her beyond the attraction the author lent to the form and expression of the thoughts, in the stages of her journey to Earth. For this reason, after having read this book and granting it the just tribute of praise that the style and the truly harmonious whole of the plot deserve, it is to be regretted that the author seems a stranger to the real principles of the nature of Spirits, and never to have thought of taking account of the influence they exert over the various social conditions of Humanity, through the progressive improvement they develop in their various incarnations. There is a natural preoccupation in the serious man, whether because by the manifold lights of philosophy he scrutinizes the vicissitudes of human life, or because with the torch of religions he sounds the mysterious depths of death: to arrive at a conclusion that enlightens him about his true destiny, showing him the way he must follow. Doubtless this way is not always the true one, but each one follows the furrow traced by the plow of the will in the field of thought, according to whether he has employed good or bad principles. For some, preconceived systems take the place of truths; they make a law of them, consuming themselves in discussions to impose it and make it prevail. For others, it is God himself whom they presume to translate, interpret, and comment upon in so many ways and in so many tumultuous, when not bloody, debates, that the sacred texts of the divine word remain buried in the rubble of their disputes. If Mr. Mossé's book does not reveal the preoccupation we would like to see in it about the nature of Spirits, at least it reveals none of those that exclude or combat it. We will even say that it comes closer to it than it departs from it, and that, with one more step, they would march in unison, because they tend toward a common end: the practice of charity as the condition of the blessed life. It is, then, a good book that Spiritism should welcome, as an ally, that it may make its brother. [See in the Review of November 1868 the article on another book by Benjamin Mossé:

Of Original Sin According to Judaism.]

Feyteau, attorney.

Allan Kardec.

[1]

By Benjamin Mossé, rabbi of Avignon.

One vol. in-12; price: 3 fr. 50. – Avignon, Bonnet Son Bookstore. [Un ange du ciel sur la terre — Google Books.]

Paris. – Typ. of COSSON ET Ce, rue du Four-Saint-Germain, 43.