The Evangelical Medium.

The last month of the year that has just passed saw the birth of a new organ of Spiritism, which corroborates our reflections contained in the preceding article on the state of Spiritism in 1864. According to its beginning and the letter that its director saw fit to write to us before its publication, we are to count on a new champion for the defense of the true principles of the doctrine, that is, of those that are today sanctioned by the great control of concordance. May it, then, be welcome. Waiting until we have been able to judge it by its works, we shall say that if the saying: Nobility obliges is true, with all the more reason may it be said that the title obliges. That of Evangelical Medium is a whole program and a fine program, which imposes great obligations, but which, nevertheless, can be understood in two ways. It could mean that the journal will occupy itself principally with religious controversies, from the dogmatic point of view, or that, understanding the essential objective of Spiritism, which is moralization, it will be edited according to the evangelical spirit, which is synonymous with charity, tolerance, and moderation. In the first case we shall not follow it, because the very interest of the doctrine demands extreme reserve in the development of its consequences, and because we often draw back, when we wish to go too quickly: “It is no use running; one must set out at the right time.” In the second, we shall be entirely with it. Here, besides, is an extract of its profession of faith, placed at the top of the first number: “The journal that we undertake to found, under the title of Evangelical Medium, has for its objective to set out upon new paths, with which the world today is preoccupied, I mean to say, in the ways of Spiritism. This journal seemed to us necessary in Toulouse, at the hour when the Spiritists can no longer be counted among us, at the hour when their numerous groups increase more and more. Indeed, publicity will be a means of making better known the result of the works of these various groups and of rendering them more useful to the great cause of moral progress to which all our destinies invite us. “Nevertheless, in order not to float at the mercy of the wind of doctrine, in these still difficult byways, we judged it our duty to raise a standard, under whose auspices we wish sincerely and resolutely to march, certain that the great principle of moral renewal is where there are no longer Greeks, nor Romans, that is, Jews, Protestants, Catholics, but one great family, united by the bonds of fraternity and tending toward a common objective, in its breathless career through the mysterious solitudes of life. This standard you know. It is not the cross of gold, daughter of pride and of the vain thoughts of men, but the cross of wood, daughter of devotion and of sacrifice and, why not say it? daughter of true charity.” We regret that the lack of space prevents us from citing the profession of faith in its entirety. But, certainly, we shall have the opportunity to return to the subject.

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The Evangelical Medium appears on Saturdays, since December 15.

– Price: Toulouse, 8 fr. per year; 6 months: 4 fr. 50. – Departments,

fr. 50. – Subscriptions: In Toulouse, rue de la Pomme, 34; in Paris, boulevard St.-Germain,

[Le Médium évangélique… journal spirite… [1re-2e année.]. — Google Books.]