What have they made of me?

We take the following communication from the Spiritist journal Salut, which is published in New Orleans, number of June 1, 1868:

— Children, I wrote to you: “When your good union calls me, I will come to you.” And since your good union has called me, here I am.

Behold you now as my apostles of old. Do as the good do and do not do as the wicked do; let no one deny, let no one betray! You are going to sit at the same table which gathered the friends of my faith and of my heart; let no one be either Peter or Judas!

O my good children, look around you and see! My cross, the glorious instrument of my vile torture, dominates the edifices of tyranny… and I, I had come only to preach liberty and happiness. With my cross, they have drowned bodies in blood and consciences in falsehood! With my cross, they have said to men: “Obey your masters; bow before the oppressors!” And I said: “You are all children of one same father, without distinction, save that of your merits, resulting from your liberty.” I had said to the great: “Humble yourselves!” and to the small: “Rise up!” and they have exalted the great and abased the small.

What have they made of me, of my memory, of my remembrance, of my apostolate? A saber! — Yes, and there are still those who have made themselves agents of this infamy!… Oh! if one could suffer in the celestial abode, I would suffer!… and you, you must suffer… and you must be ready for anything for the redemption which I began, were it only to raise upon the same mountain the same sign of union!… It will be seen and understood, and they will leave everything to defend it, to bless it, to love it. Children, go toward heaven with faith, and all Humanity will follow you without fear and with love! Soon you will know, in practice, what the world is, if theory has not taught you.

All that has been told you for the practice of true Christianity is but the shadow of the truth! The triumph that awaits you is as far above human triumphs and above your thoughts as the stars of heaven are above the errors of the Earth!

Oh! when they see like Thomas! When they have touched!… You will see! you will see! The passions will create obstacles for you, then will succor you, for they will be the good passions after the bad passions.

Think of me, when you go to break my bread and drink my wine, saying that you raise, for eternity, the banner of the worlds… Oh! yes, of the worlds, for it will have united the past, the present, and the future to God.

Jesus.

The journal publishes this communication without giving information as to the circumstances in which it was obtained. It seems, however, that it must have been at a festival commemorating the supper, or some fraternal agape among the adherents. Be that as it may, it bears, in the form and in the substance of the thoughts, in the simplicity allied to the nobility of the style, a stamp of identity which one could not fail to recognize. It attests, on the part of those present, dispositions capable of meriting them this favor, and we can only congratulate them. One can see that the instructions given in America on charity and fraternity yield in nothing to those given in Europe. It is the bond which will unite the inhabitants of the two worlds.