Persecutions.

— Toward the end of 1864 a persecution against Spiritism was preached in several cities of the south, and was followed by some effects. Here is an extract from one of these sermons, which was sent to us at the time, with all the indications necessary to establish its authenticity. People will appreciate our reserve in citing neither the places nor the persons:

“Flee, Christians, flee from these lost men and these wicked women, who give themselves over to practices that the Church condemns! Have no relation with these madmen and these madwomen; abandon them to an absolute isolation. Flee from them as from dangerous creatures. Do not tolerate them at your side, and expel them from the holy place, whose access is forbidden to them by reason of their unworthiness.

“Behold these lost men and these wicked women, who hide in the shadows, and who gather in secret to propagate their ignoble doctrines; follow them with me into their lairs; would they not be taken for conspirators of low condition, delighting in the darkness to form there their infamous plots? They conspire openly, indeed, aided by Satan, against our holy mother Church, which Jesus established to reign upon the Earth. What else do these impious men and these shameless women do? They blaspheme God; they deny the sublime truths which, for centuries, inspired the most profound respect in their forebears; they adorn themselves with a false charity, which they know only by name, and they use it as a cloak to conceal their ambition! They introduce themselves, like ravening wolves, into your homes to seduce your daughters and your wives and to ruin you all forever; but you will expel them from your presence as malevolent beings! “Have you understood, Christians, who they are that I point out for your reprobation? They are the Spiritists! And why should I not name them? It is time to repel them and to curse their infernal doctrines!”

— Sermons of this kind were the order of the day in that epoch. If we exhume this document from our archives, after four years, it is to respond to the qualification of dangerous party, given in these recent times to the Spiritists by certain organs of the press. In the aforementioned circumstance, on which side was the aggression, the provocation, in a word, the spirit of party? Could one carry further the incitement to hatred of citizens against one another, to the division of families? Do not such sermons recall those of the disastrous epoch in which these same regions were drenched in blood by the wars of religion, in which the father was armed against the son and the son against the father? We do not judge them from the point of view of evangelical charity, but from that of prudence. Is it good policy thus to excite the fanatical passions in a region where the past is still so alive? where authority often has difficulty in preventing conflicts? Is it prudent to display there once again the apples of discord? Did they then wish to renew there the crusade against the Albigenses and the war of the Cevennes? If similar sermons had been preached against the Protestants, bloody reprisals would have been inevitable. Today they seize upon Spiritism because, as it does not yet have legal existence, they judge that everything is permitted with regard to it. Well then! what has been, in all times, the attitude of the Spiritists, in the face of the attacks of which they have been the object? That of calm and of moderation. Should one not bless a doctrine whose force is great enough to put a curb on turbulent and vindictive passions? Note, however, that nowhere do the Spiritists form a constituted body; that they are not regimented into congregations obedient to a watchword; that among them there is no affiliation, patent or secret; they undergo, quite simply and individually, the influence of a philosophical idea, and this idea, freely accepted by reason, and not imposed, is sufficient to modify their tendencies, because they are conscious of being right. They see this idea grow without cease, infiltrate everywhere, gain ground each day; they have faith in its future, because it is according to the principles of eternal justice, responds to social needs, and identifies itself with progress, whose march is irresistible. This is why they are calm in the face of the attacks of which it is the object; they would believe they were giving a proof of distrust in its force, were they to sustain it by violence and by material means. They laugh at these attacks, for they have no other result than to propagate it more rapidly, attesting to its importance. But the attacks are not limited to the idea. Although the crusade against the Spiritists is no longer preached openly, as it was some years ago, their adversaries have not become more benevolent, nor more tolerant; the persecution is no less exercised, on occasion, cunningly against the individuals it strikes, not only in their liberty of conscience, which is a sacred right, but even in their material interests. For lack of reason, the adversaries of Spiritism still hope to overthrow it by calumny and by repression. Without doubt they are mistaken, but, in the meantime, they make some victims. Now, it must not be concealed that the struggle is not over; the adepts must, then, arm themselves with courage to march firmly in the path that is traced out for them. It is not only in view of the present, but, above all, in foresight of the future, that we judge it well to reproduce the instruction that follows, to which we seriously call the attention of the adepts. Moreover, it is a refutation given to those who seek to represent Spiritism as a party dangerous to social order. Would to God that all parties obeyed only such inspirations: peace would not be slow to reign upon the Earth.

(Paris, December 10, 1864. – Medium: Mr. Delanne.)

My children: These persecutions, like so many others, will fall and cannot be prejudicial to the cause of Spiritism. The good Spirits watch over the execution of the Lord’s orders; you have nothing to fear. Nevertheless, it is a warning for you to keep on your guard and to act with prudence. It is a tempest that breaks out, for you must expect to see many others break out, as we have announced to you, for you must not think that your enemies will easily give themselves up for vanquished. No; they will fight step by step, until they are convinced of their impotence. Let them, then, cast their venom, without troubling yourselves about what they may say, because you well know that they can do nothing against the Doctrine which, in spite of everything, must triumph. They well feel it, and it is this that exasperates them and redoubles their fury.

It must be expected that in the struggle they will make some victims, but there will be the trial by which the Lord will recognize the courage and the perseverance of his true servants. What merit would you have in triumphing without effort? Like valiant soldiers, the wounded will be the most rewarded. And what glory for those who emerge from the fray mutilated and covered with honorable scars! If an enemy people came to invade your country, would you not sacrifice your goods, your life for its independence? Why, then, would you lament a few scratches that you receive in a struggle whose inevitable outcome you know, and in which you are certain of victory? Thank God, then, for having placed you in the front line, so that you may be among the first to gather the glorious palms, which will be the prize of your devotion to the holy cause. Thank your persecutors, who allow you to show your courage and to acquire more merit. Do not go to meet persecution, do not seek it; but if it comes, accept it as one of the trials of life, for it is one of them, and one of the most profitable to your advancement, according to the manner in which you bear it. It is with this trial as with all the others: by your conduct you can make it fruitful, or fruitless for you. Shame to those who shall have drawn back and preferred the repose of the Earth to what was prepared for them, for the Lord will make the reckoning of their sacrifices. He will say to them: “What do you ask, you who have lost nothing, sacrificed nothing? who have not given up even one night of your sleep, nor a little of your table, nor left a scrap of your clothing on the field of battle? What did you do during that time, while your brothers went to meet the danger? You kept yourselves apart, to let the tempest pass and to show yourselves after the danger, while your brothers faced all the difficulties.”

Think of the Christian martyrs! They did not have, as you do, incessant communications from the invisible world to reanimate their faith and, nevertheless, they did not draw back before the sacrifice, neither of their life, nor of their goods. Besides, the time of those cruel trials has already passed; the bloody sacrifices, the tortures, the stakes will be repeated no more; your trials are more moral than material; they will be, consequently, less painful, but they will be no less meritorious, because everything is proportioned to the time. Today it is the spirit that dominates; this is why the spirit suffers more than the body. The predominance of spiritual trials over material trials is an indication of the spirit’s advancement. Besides, you know that many of those who suffered for Christianity come to contribute to the crowning of the work, and they are the ones who sustain the struggle with the most courage; thus, they come to add one more palm to those they had already conquered. What I tell you, my friends, is not to decide you to enter recklessly into the fray and with head lowered. No; on the contrary, I tell you: Act with prudence and circumspection, in the very interest of the Doctrine, which would have to suffer from an unreflective zeal; but if a sacrifice is necessary, make it without murmuring and think that a temporal loss is nothing beside the compensation you will receive for it.

Do not worry about the future of the Doctrine. Among those who combat it today, more than one will be its defender tomorrow. The adversaries are agitated; at a given moment they will wish to unite to strike a great blow and overthrow the edifice begun, but their efforts will be in vain and division will arise in their ranks. The times are approaching in which events will favor the emergence of what you sow. Consider the work in which you labor, without concerning yourselves with what they may say or do. Your enemies do everything they can to lead you beyond the limits of moderation, in order to be able to give a pretext to their aggressions; their insults have no other object, but your indifference and your longanimity confound them. To violence, continue, then, to oppose gentleness and charity; do good to those who wish you ill, so that they may distinguish, later on, the true from the false. You have a powerful weapon: that of reasoning. Make use of it, but never stain it with insult, the supreme argument of those who have no good reasons to give; strive, finally, by the dignity of your conduct, to make the title of Spiritist respected in you. St. Louis. n [1]

[cf. St.

Louis.]