Spiritism obliges

Spiritism is an essentially moral science. From the outset, those who say they are its adherents cannot, without committing a grave inconsistency, withdraw themselves from the obligations it imposes. These obligations are of two kinds:

The first concerns the individual who, aided by the intellectual lights that the doctrine spreads, can better understand the value of each of his acts, better probe all the recesses of his conscience, better appreciate the infinite goodness of God, who does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live; and, in order to leave him the possibility of rising from his falls, He gave him a long series of successive existences, in each of which, bearing the penalty of his past faults, he can acquire new knowledge and new strength, making him avoid evil and practice what conforms to justice, to charity. What is to be said of him who, enlightened as to his duties toward God and toward his brothers, remains proud, covetous, and selfish? Does it not seem that the light has blinded him, because he was not prepared to receive it? From then on he walks in the shadows, notwithstanding being in the midst of the light; he is a Spiritist only in name. The fraternal charity of those who truly see must strive to cure him of this intellectual blindness; but, for many of those who resemble him, the light that the tomb brings will be needed, because his heart is too attached to material enjoyments and his spirit is not ripe to receive the truth. In a new incarnation they will understand that inferior planets like the Earth are nothing but a kind of mutual school, where the soul begins to develop its faculties, its aptitudes, in order then to apply them to the study of the great principles of order, of justice, of love, and of harmony, which govern the relations of souls among themselves, and the functions they perform in the direction of the Universe; they will feel that, called to so high a dignity as that of becoming a messenger of the Most High, the human soul must not debase itself, degrade itself through contact with the filthy pleasures of voluptuousness, with the ignoble cravings of avarice, which deprives some of God's children of the enjoyment of the goods He gave to all; they will understand that selfishness, born of pride, blinds the soul and makes it violate the rights of justice, of Humanity, since it engenders all the evils that make of the Earth a station of sorrows and of expiations. Instructed by the harsh lessons of adversity, their spirit will be ripened by reflection, and their heart, after having been crushed by sorrow, will become good and charitable. It is thus that what seems to you an evil is at times necessary to bring back the hardened ones. These poor laggards, regenerated by suffering, enlightened by this inner light, which may be called the baptism of the Spirit, will watch with care over themselves, that is, over the movements of their heart and the use of their faculties, in order to direct them according to the laws of justice and of fraternity. They will understand not only that they themselves are obliged to improve themselves, a selfish calculation that prevents attaining the objective intended by God, but that the second order of obligations of the Spiritist, necessarily deriving from the first and completing it, is that of example, which is the best of the means of propagation and of renewal. Indeed, he who is convinced of the excellence of the principles that are taught to him, and conforms his conduct to them, principles that must afford him a lasting happiness, cannot, if he is truly animated by this fraternal charity which is in the very essence of Spiritism, but desire that they be understood by all men. Hence the moral obligation to conform his conduct to his belief and to be a living example, a model, as the Christ was for Humanity.

You, frail sparks issued from the eternal hearth of divine love, certainly cannot lay claim to so vast a radiance as that of the Word of God incarnate on Earth, but, in your sphere of action, you can spread the benefits of good example. You can make virtue beloved, surrounding it with the charm of that constant benevolence which attracts, captivates, and shows, in short, that the practice of good is an easy thing, promotes the intimate happiness of the conscience that has placed itself under its law, for it is the realization of the divine will, which made us say through its Christ: Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Now, Spiritism is the true application of the principles of the morality taught by Jesus, and it is only with the aim of making it understood by all, so that, through it, all may progress more rapidly, that God permits this universal manifestation of the Spirit, coming to explain what seemed obscure to you and to explain to you the whole truth. It comes, like well-understood Christianity, to show man the absolute necessity of his inner renewal through the very consequences that result from each of his acts, from each of his thoughts; for no fluidic emanation, good or bad, escapes from the heart or the brain of man without leaving a mark somewhere. The invisible world that surrounds you is for you that Book of Life, where everything is inscribed with an incredible fidelity, and the scale of Divine Justice is but a figure, expressing that each of your acts, of your sentiments, is, in a certain way, the weight that burdens your soul and prevents it from rising, or that which brings the equilibrium between good and evil. Happy is he whose sentiments proceed from a pure heart; he spreads around himself as it were a gentle atmosphere, which makes virtue beloved and attracts the good Spirits; his power of radiation is all the greater the more humble he is, that is, the more detached from the material influences that draw down the soul and prevent it from progressing.

The obligations that Spiritism imposes are, then, of an essentially moral nature; they are a consequence of belief; each one is judge and party in his own cause; but the intellectual lights for whoever truly wishes to know himself and to work at his improvement are such that they frighten the pusillanimous, which is why it is rejected by so great a number. Others try to reconcile the reform that their reason shows them to be a necessity with the demands of present-day society. Hence a heterogeneous mixture, a lack of unity, which makes the present epoch a transitory state. It is very difficult for your poor corporeal nature to strip itself of its imperfections in order to put on the new man, that is, the man who lives according to the principles of justice and of harmony determined by God; nevertheless, with persevering efforts you will arrive there, because the obligations imposed on the conscience, when it is sufficiently enlightened, have more force than human laws will ever have, based on the constraint of a religious obscurantism that does not bear examination. But if, thanks to the lights from on high, you are more instructed and understand more, you must also be more tolerant and employ, as a means of propagation, nothing but reasoning, for every sincere belief is respectable. If your life be a beautiful model, in which each one can find good examples and solid virtues, where dignity is allied with a gracious mildness, rejoice, for you will have, in part, understood that to which Spiritism obliges. Louis of France. n Allan Kardec.

Paris. – Typ. of Rouge frères, Dunon et Fresné, rue du Four-Saint-Germain, 43.

[1] [There are many French kings with this name, but we believe it concerns Saint Louis of France.]