| Year 15 | Number 83 | 2007 | April 15th, 2007 |
| "Unshakable
faith is only that which can face reason face to
face in every Humankind epoch." Allan Kardec |
| |
"What is science but a collection of truths, suggestive of an inference? According to John Stuart Mill, the language of science is, 'This is, or This is not; This does, or does not happen. Science takes cognizance of a phenomenon, and endeavors to discover its law.' Surely, under this ruling Spiritualism has a scientific basis in its proven facts. The man claiming to be scientific, who imagines that he knows all the laws of nature so thoroughly that occurrences like clairvoyance and direct writing canot take place without transcending the boundaries of scientific recognition, is himself under a hallucination more serious than any which he affects to deplore. ... Rationally studied and interpreted, unmixed with delusions self-generated or imposed by others, Spiritualism is the one safeguard against all superstitions. It shows that the unseen world is as much within the sphere of universal nature as our own; it is the solvent of many mysteries that have perplexed philosophers and stultified historians; it shows that not spirits, but our own misconstructions and unchecked passions, are what we have most to fear." Note: Excerpt from the PREFACE of the book Scientific Basis of Spiritualism [Colby and Rich, Publisher, Boston, 1881. pp. 3 and 5-6] by EPES SARGENT, a journalist, a poet, a novelist, a playwright and an educator. He is also the author of the classic book: Planchette; or The Dispair of Science, which has a survey on French Spiritism. The book from which the excerpt is taken, was translated into Portuguese by F. R. Ewerton Quadros and published by FEB - Brazilian Spiritist Federation, under the title of Bases Científicas do Espiritismo. |
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| ° EDITORIAL
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| THE PARANOIA OF IMPENDING ARMAGEDDON |
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| ° THE CODIFICATION
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| THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING
TO SPIRITISM - CHAPTER XXI - There Will Be False Christs and False
Prophets |
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| CHRISTIANITY AND SPIRITUALISM by Leon Denis | |||
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| THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH |
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A VISIT TO THE SPIRITIST SOCIETY
OF FLORIDA |
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| THANK YOU, WE ENJOYED YOUR COMPANY! [A MEETING AT THE SPIRITIST SOCIETY OF FLORIDA] | |||
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| A CAMPAIGN TO UNDERSTAND SKEPTICISM | |||
| ° EDITORIAL |
"You shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free"
[John, 8: 32]
"Spiritists, love one another. This is the first precept. Educate yourselves. That is the second"[The Spirit of Truth]
We have seen much lately in terms of the strange predictions regarding the end of the world in the media. This may be perhaps as a result of the beginning of a new millennium, and these types of ridiculous prophesies tend to proliferate and in many ways affect those who are not on guard against these extravagant frivolities
It is interesting to observe that these allegations mostly come from the so-called religious leaders, who should clearly be playing a different role in helping people to educate themselves in regard to their own existential reality. Since we are now living in a global community and are able to learn about what is happening in all corners of the globe, people are living in a certain level of fear due to the fact that the mainstream media prefers to gives heed to sensational news. Therefore, the violent aspects of life are overemphasized and the spreading of news about wars, famine, global warming, terror and other weaknesses of the human race, are taken to a level where fear can be the only end result.
The aforementioned axioms from the Evangelist and The Spirit of Truth, along with the aphorism that guided the great philosopher Socrates through his life - "know thyself" -, should be ranked among the most important precepts to guide us in our struggle to achieve progress and peace of mind, despite the distress and tribulations of our daily lives. They are the best antidotes that will help one to be on guard against the hoaxes of the end of world.
Undoubtedly, the orthodox religions have not been great allies of mankind in this struggle. The core of their message in the past and even today bears no consonance with scientific knowledge and rationality. A brief look into the pages of the history of human race will show us that they have always placed themselves as the greatest obstacles to scientific knowledge and progress. It seems quite clear that they did not change their behavior and still retain attitudes from the Middle Ages, fighting to maintain its followers in a state of ignorance in order to control their domain. This is the reason why we see their leaders giving support for claims such as the final battle between good and evil, the end of the world and the fulfilling of the promise of a heaven where the elected will rest in a peaceful and eternal idleness.
The doctrines of The New Revelation, especially Spiritism and Modern Spiritualism, along with the well established science of Psychical Research, have come and proclaimed themselves as great allies of humankind in the fight against ignorance. For almost two centuries these doctrines have shed light over a variety of phenomena that affect the human race so deeply in its destiny. Unlike the orthodox religions, they have lifted the veil of mystery and miracle that has been intentionally cast over these phenomena.
The fundamental teachings that these doctrines convey appeals greatly to any individual, for its sole aim is to contribute to the well being and the moral progress of humanity. However, its language is crystal clear and carries no concern in regard to proselytism and adherence. Therefore, the essential point of the message is to warn each and every one of us in regard to the unavoidable aspect of individual responsibility. Henceforth, the primary trait of this concept is clearly established in the above principles.
Let us not be fooled by the wrong impression that achievement in this regard will come with ease. No, definitely not. In order to achieve progress, happiness and to discover the possible and relative Truth, one that belongs to this world, one will need to put forth the effort and do for oneself what nobody else can. It will only be through serious and persevering study that we will be able to escape from the condition of being preys of those who are out there with the sole aim of acquiring power and profit.
If we do the homework of educating ourselves to the purpose of our material existence, we will be able to understand the greatness of the Creator and His magnanimous mercy towards humanity. In this manner it will be much easier for us to understand that we all belong to the same brethren and as immortal spirits we were equal created and endowed with the gift of freewill to respond to our acts. Furthermore, we will be able to understand that our life here in this planet Earth is just one among many opportunities that are given to us through the blessing of reincarnation, which will eventually lead us to perfection and absolute happiness. Then, there will be neither room nor demand for worthless predictions.
Antonio Leite
GEAE Editor
GEAE Editor
| ° THE CODIFICATION |
THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM
CHAPTER XXI
THERE WILL BE FALSE CHRISTS AND FALSE PROPHETS
DO NOT BELIEVE ALL THE SPIRITS
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are from God;
because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
[JOHN, 1st Epistle, chap. 4: 1)
INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS.
The False Prophets
CHAPTER XXI
THERE WILL BE FALSE CHRISTS AND FALSE PROPHETS
DO NOT BELIEVE ALL THE SPIRITS
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are from God;
because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
[JOHN, 1st Epistle, chap. 4: 1)
INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS.
The False Prophets
8. Where it is said: "Christ is here," do not go. On
the contrary, be on guard because the false prophets there will be numerous.
Do you not see that the leaves of the fig-tree are fading? Do you not see that its multiple shoots are
awaiting the time of coming into flower? Did not Jesus say unto you: know the tree by its
fruit? Then if the fruit is bitter you already know that the tree is
evil; however, if the
fruits are sweet and healthy you can say: "Nothing that is pure can
come from something bad."
My brethren, this then is how you should judge. It is the works that you should examine. If those who say they are invested with divine powers reveal signs of a mission of high order that is to say, if they possess the highest order of Christian and eternal virtues which are: charity, love, tolerance and goodness which conciliates all hearts and if, in support of their works they also present the equivalent acts, then you may say: These are true messengers of God.
Nevertheless, be mistrustful of honeyed words; be mistrustful of the Scribes and Pharisees who pray in public places clothed in long tunics. Mistrust those who lay claim to a monopoly of the truth!
No, no, Christ is not amongst these, seeing that those He sends to propagate His sacred doctrine and regenerate His peoples will, above all else, follow His example, be gentle and humble of heart. Those who have to save humanity, which is running towards damnation, by their examples and their counselling will be essentially modest and humble. Run away from all who show even an atom of pride as you would run away from an infectious disease, which is apt to contaminate everything it touches. Remember, each creature bears the stamp on their brow and even more especially in their actions, of their spiritual progress or their inferiority.
Go therefore, my beloved children, and advance without indecision or hidden thoughts along the blessed route you have accepted. Go always without fear; turn aside with great care from all that may impede your march towards the eternal objective. Travellers, it is only for a while longer that you will be in the shadows and suffer the pains of atonement if you open your heart to this sweet doctrine, which will reveal to you the eternal laws and satisfy every aspiration of your soul with regard to the unknown. You may already give embodiment to the fleeting sylph you see passing by in your dreams, and which being short-lived, only enchants your spirit without touching your heart. Now, my beloved, death disappears giving place to the radiant angel you know, the angel of re-encounter and reunion! Now, all you who have faithfully fulfilled your tasks, which the Creator confides to His creatures, have nothing more to fear from His justice, since He is the Father and always forgives those of His children who have strayed when they cry out for mercy. Accordingly, continue to advance unceasingly! Let your slogan be progress, continuous progress in all things, until finally you reach the happy termination of your journey, where all who proceeded you await. LOUIS (Bordeaux, 1861).
9. Mistrust the false prophets. This recommendation is useful in all epochs, but above all in times of transition such as now when a transformation of humanity is occurring, because of a multitude of those who are ambitious and scheming will promote themselves as reformers and messiahs. We should be on guard against these imposters and it is the duty of all honest people to unmask them. You may well ask how they can be identified. Here are the things which point them out:
The command of an army is only confided to a capable general. Do you believe that God is less prudent than Man? You may be sure that He only confides important missions to those He knows are capable of fulfilling them, seeing that great missions are heavy burdens which crush those who are lacking in sufficient strength to carry them. In all things the teacher must know more than the disciple. In order to lead humanity to advance, both morally and intellectually, we must have men and women of superior intelligence and morality. This is why Spirits who are already advanced, having passed their tests in other existences, are always chosen for these missions, because if they were not superior to the ambient in which they are required to act, their effect would be nullified.
Having said that, we must conclude that the true missionary of God must justify his mission through superiority, virtue, magnanimity, results and by the moralizing influence of his work. We may also take into consideration yet another consequence. If, due to their character, virtues and intelligence, they show themselves to be less than the part they purport to represent, or the person under whose name they have placed themselves, then they are nothing more than storytellers of low character, who cannot even imitate their chosen model.
Another consideration is that, in the greater part, true missionaries of God are ignorant of the fact. They fulfill the mission to which they were called by the strength of character they possess, seconded by occult forces who inspire and direct them, even against their will, but without premeditation. In a word - the true prophet reveals himself by his actions and is discovered by others, whereas the false prophet declares himself to be a messenger of God. The first is humble and modest, the second is full of himself, speaks with arrogance, and as all who lie, appears to be always afraid he will not be believed.
Some of these imposters have passed themselves as apostles of Christ, others as Christ Himself, and to the disgrace of all humanity, they have encountered those sufficiently credulous as to believe in their baseness. However, a simple pondering is enough to open the eyes of even the most blind in this matter. That is to say, that if Christ were to reincarnate on Earth, He would come with all His power and all His virtues; unless one admits that He had degenerated, which would be absurd. Well, in the same manner, if we were to take away even one of God's attributes, we would no longer have God. So likewise, if we take away even one of Christ's virtues, we would no longer have Christ. The question is, do those who purport to be Christ have all His virtues? Observe them, scrutinize their ideas and actions and you will recognise that apart from anything else, they lack the distinctive qualities of Christ, which are charity and humility, while abounding in all those Christ does not possess, such as covetousness and pride. Furthermore, take note that at this moment in various countries there are many supposed Christs, just as there are many Elijahs, Saint Johns or Saint Peters, and clearly it is impossible for them all to be true. You may be sure they are only creatures who exploit the credulity of others and who find it convenient to live at the expense of those who listen to them.
So then, mistrust the false prophets especially at a time of renewal such as the present, because there will be many imposters who say they are from God. They try to satisfy their vanity here on Earth, but a terrible justice will befall them, of that you may be sure. - ERASTUS (Paris 1862).
My brethren, this then is how you should judge. It is the works that you should examine. If those who say they are invested with divine powers reveal signs of a mission of high order that is to say, if they possess the highest order of Christian and eternal virtues which are: charity, love, tolerance and goodness which conciliates all hearts and if, in support of their works they also present the equivalent acts, then you may say: These are true messengers of God.
Nevertheless, be mistrustful of honeyed words; be mistrustful of the Scribes and Pharisees who pray in public places clothed in long tunics. Mistrust those who lay claim to a monopoly of the truth!
No, no, Christ is not amongst these, seeing that those He sends to propagate His sacred doctrine and regenerate His peoples will, above all else, follow His example, be gentle and humble of heart. Those who have to save humanity, which is running towards damnation, by their examples and their counselling will be essentially modest and humble. Run away from all who show even an atom of pride as you would run away from an infectious disease, which is apt to contaminate everything it touches. Remember, each creature bears the stamp on their brow and even more especially in their actions, of their spiritual progress or their inferiority.
Go therefore, my beloved children, and advance without indecision or hidden thoughts along the blessed route you have accepted. Go always without fear; turn aside with great care from all that may impede your march towards the eternal objective. Travellers, it is only for a while longer that you will be in the shadows and suffer the pains of atonement if you open your heart to this sweet doctrine, which will reveal to you the eternal laws and satisfy every aspiration of your soul with regard to the unknown. You may already give embodiment to the fleeting sylph you see passing by in your dreams, and which being short-lived, only enchants your spirit without touching your heart. Now, my beloved, death disappears giving place to the radiant angel you know, the angel of re-encounter and reunion! Now, all you who have faithfully fulfilled your tasks, which the Creator confides to His creatures, have nothing more to fear from His justice, since He is the Father and always forgives those of His children who have strayed when they cry out for mercy. Accordingly, continue to advance unceasingly! Let your slogan be progress, continuous progress in all things, until finally you reach the happy termination of your journey, where all who proceeded you await. LOUIS (Bordeaux, 1861).
The
Character Of The True Prophet
9. Mistrust the false prophets. This recommendation is useful in all epochs, but above all in times of transition such as now when a transformation of humanity is occurring, because of a multitude of those who are ambitious and scheming will promote themselves as reformers and messiahs. We should be on guard against these imposters and it is the duty of all honest people to unmask them. You may well ask how they can be identified. Here are the things which point them out:
The command of an army is only confided to a capable general. Do you believe that God is less prudent than Man? You may be sure that He only confides important missions to those He knows are capable of fulfilling them, seeing that great missions are heavy burdens which crush those who are lacking in sufficient strength to carry them. In all things the teacher must know more than the disciple. In order to lead humanity to advance, both morally and intellectually, we must have men and women of superior intelligence and morality. This is why Spirits who are already advanced, having passed their tests in other existences, are always chosen for these missions, because if they were not superior to the ambient in which they are required to act, their effect would be nullified.
Having said that, we must conclude that the true missionary of God must justify his mission through superiority, virtue, magnanimity, results and by the moralizing influence of his work. We may also take into consideration yet another consequence. If, due to their character, virtues and intelligence, they show themselves to be less than the part they purport to represent, or the person under whose name they have placed themselves, then they are nothing more than storytellers of low character, who cannot even imitate their chosen model.
Another consideration is that, in the greater part, true missionaries of God are ignorant of the fact. They fulfill the mission to which they were called by the strength of character they possess, seconded by occult forces who inspire and direct them, even against their will, but without premeditation. In a word - the true prophet reveals himself by his actions and is discovered by others, whereas the false prophet declares himself to be a messenger of God. The first is humble and modest, the second is full of himself, speaks with arrogance, and as all who lie, appears to be always afraid he will not be believed.
Some of these imposters have passed themselves as apostles of Christ, others as Christ Himself, and to the disgrace of all humanity, they have encountered those sufficiently credulous as to believe in their baseness. However, a simple pondering is enough to open the eyes of even the most blind in this matter. That is to say, that if Christ were to reincarnate on Earth, He would come with all His power and all His virtues; unless one admits that He had degenerated, which would be absurd. Well, in the same manner, if we were to take away even one of God's attributes, we would no longer have God. So likewise, if we take away even one of Christ's virtues, we would no longer have Christ. The question is, do those who purport to be Christ have all His virtues? Observe them, scrutinize their ideas and actions and you will recognise that apart from anything else, they lack the distinctive qualities of Christ, which are charity and humility, while abounding in all those Christ does not possess, such as covetousness and pride. Furthermore, take note that at this moment in various countries there are many supposed Christs, just as there are many Elijahs, Saint Johns or Saint Peters, and clearly it is impossible for them all to be true. You may be sure they are only creatures who exploit the credulity of others and who find it convenient to live at the expense of those who listen to them.
So then, mistrust the false prophets especially at a time of renewal such as the present, because there will be many imposters who say they are from God. They try to satisfy their vanity here on Earth, but a terrible justice will befall them, of that you may be sure. - ERASTUS (Paris 1862).
| ° ELECTRONIC BOOKS |
CHRISTIANITY AND SPIRITUALISM
The History of the Gospels
The Secret Doctrine of Christianity
Intercourse with the Spirits of the Dead
The New Revelation
Vitam Impendere Vero
By
LÉON DENIS
Author of
"Après La Mort, "Dans L'Invisible," ETC.
Translated from the French by
HELEN DRAPER SPEAKMAN
LONDON
PHILIP WELLBY
6 Henrietta Street Covent Garden
1904
This book is out of print indefinitely
1st Electronic Edition by
the
Advanced
Study Group of Spiritism
(GEAE)
2006
THE DECADENCE OF CHRISTIANITY - First Part
NINETEEN
centuries have elapsed since the time of Christ, neneteen centuries of
authority for the Church, twelve of them of absolute power. What, at
the present time, are the consequences of her teachings? Has
Christianity fulfilled its mission of explaining and spreading the
teaching of Christ, of forming by them a better and happier state of
society? Has this great work been accomplished? "The tree is judged by
its fruits," say the Scriptures. Look at the tree of Christianity. Does
it bend under the load of fruits of hope and of love?
The tree is stil gigantic doubtless, but among its branches, how many have been cut and mutilated, how many have dried up, how many have remained unfruitful. The pilgrim of life stops, exhausted, under its shade, but it is in vain that he seeks there rest for his soul, confidence and the moral force necessary for him to pursue his way. He longs for a deeper rest, and more satisfying refreshment; instinctively, his eyes scan the horizon for something better.
The faith in immortality is very feeble in many of those who call themselves disciples of Christ; often their hopes waver in the icy blast of scepticism. The faithful lay their dead in the coffin, and with every blow of the hammer, a heavy doubt falls crushingly on their hearts.
The priest feels his weakness; he knows that he is frail and subject to error, even as those he is supposed to guide; and if his material position and his dignity were not in question, he would admit his insufficiency and cease to be a blind leader of the blind. He who, knowing nothing of the future life and its true laws, sets himsilf up as a leader to others, becomes that blind man spoken of in the Scripture: "If the blind lead the blind they shall both fall into the ditch" (Matt. XV. 14).
Darkness reigns in the sanctuary. There is not a single bishop who appears to know as much about the conditions of life beyond the tomb, as the lowliest initiate of ancient times, or the most humble deacon of the early Church.
Whence comes this state of things? During twelve centuries the Church dominated and moulded the human soul and society as a whole, according to her will. All power was in her hands. All authority was in her or came from her. She reigned over souls and bodies; she reigned by book and by word, by fire and by sword. She was absolute mistress of the Christian world; there was no check, no limit to her power of action. What has she made of that world? She complains of its scepticism, of its corruption and vices! Does she not see that in accusing it, she accused himself, for it is her own work. The truth is that she is powerless to direct, to improve it. The sceptical and corrupt society of the eighteenth century was the direct work of her hands. The abuses, the excesses, and the errors of the priesthood engendered that social state. It was the impossibility of believing in the dogmas of the Church which drove man to doubt and to negation.
Materialism has thoroughly penetrated the social body. But whose fault is it? If man had found in religion, as it was taught him, the moral force, the consolation, and spiritual direction which he needed, would he have detached himself from these Churches, in whose powerful hands had rested the up-bringing of so many generations? Would he have ceased to believe, to hope, and to love?
The truth is that the teachings of the Church have not succeeded in satisfying the intelligence or the conscience. If at the height of her power, the Church could not regenerate humanity, how will she be able to do so today? Ah! perhaps if she would abandon her palaces, her riches, her luxurious and theatrical worship, her gold and purple; if, coarsely clad, crucifix in hand, the bishops and princes of the Church, renouncing their wordly goods, and becoming like Christ before them, sublime vagabonds, preached to the crowds the true Gospel of peace and of love; if such things could be, perhaps then mankind might believe in them once more. But the Roman Church does not appear anxious to act this part, and the spirit of Christ is leaving her more and more. There only remains an exterior form, under which is but the corpse of a grand idea.
The Christian Churches only live by what is left in them of evangelical morality; their conception of the world, of life, and of destiny, is but a dead letter. Indeed, what can one think or say of a teaching which forced men to belive, and affirm during centuries, the immobility of the earth, and the creation of the world in six days? What can one think of a doctrine which sees in the resurrection of the flesh the only means of giving back life to the dead? How can one answer a conception of life which consists in the belief that one day all the atoms of our body must come together again? With the new lights which, each day, come to illuminate the problem of survival, all this is but a childish dream.
It is the same with the idea of God. The gravest reproach that we can make to the Church, is that of having falsified and distorted the idea of God, and thereby having rendered it odious to many. The Roman Church has always laid emphasis on the fear of God. That was the sentiment especially necessary to her scheme of dominion with the semi-barbarous peoples with which she had to deal, but it was a dangerous one, for, after having long made slaves, it ends by making rebels. It drives man to hate a God who has been shown to him only as the God of fearful and eternal chastisements, a God in whose name scaffolds and stakes are erected, in whose name blood has flowed in the torture chambers. From thence has come this violent reaction, this furious negation and bitter hatred of God the despot and tormentor, which finds expression in the cry, which echoes everywhere today, in our homes, in our public places, in our press:- "Neither God nor Master."
If we add the terrible discipline inflicted on the faithful by the Church in the Middle Ages, fastings, mortification, the continual fear of damnation, when a look, or word, or guilty thought, rendered them liable to the pains of hell, we shall understand what a sobre ideal, what a reign of terror was instituted through the world by the Church, driving people to renounce all that constitute civilisation and social life, and to think only of personal salvation, regardless of natural laws, which are also divine. If we would know God and approach Him, it is only by love that we can do so; it is love alone which vivifies and attracts. God is all love, and to understand Him, we must cultivate in ourselves that divine spark; we must cease to live for ourselves, and live in that divine region which embraces all creation. God is in every man who knows how to love. To love and cultivate the divine in ourselves and in humanity, this is the secret of all progress, of all elevation. This is why it has been said, "Love God above all things, and thy neighbour as thyself." It is thus the great Christians souls attained such sublime heights. It is by such means that St Vincent de Paul, St Francis d"Assisi and others, have been enabled to accomplish work which has called forth the wonder of ages. Their ardent charity was not inspired by the Catholic Dogmas. It was from the Gopspels that those noble spirits drew the faith and love which animated them.
The conception of the world and of life shared the same fate as that of God. For long the Church imposed on the intelligence that old theory which made of the earth the most important and central body of the universe, and of the Sun and Planets her satellites, turning around her. The heavens were a solid vault, above it was throned the Eternal, surrounded by celestial armies; under the earth were the deep inferior places, the hells. The world, created six thousand years ago, was soon to be destroyed. This ending was a constante menace held over the head of mankind. With the end of the world was to coincide a terrible judgement, final and universal, at which the dead would rise from their tombs, clad in their carnal bodies, to appear before the tribunal of God. Modern astronomy has destroyed these conceptions. It has shown us that our globe is but a single unit in the great family of celestial bodies, that the vastness of the heavens is peopled by an infinite number of worlds. Everywhere the earths, suns, spheres in course of formation, of development or of decadence, tell us the marvels of an incessante eternal creation, in which the forms of life are multiplied, follow each other, and renew themselves. Among these worlds which roll in the immensity of spaces, our earth is but a grain of sand, an atom lost in infinity. This atom, the Church insists, is the only inhabited one. But science, philosophy, and the revelation of spirits, show us life appearing on the surface of these worlds, and elevating itself little by little, through slow transformations, towards an ideal of beauty and of perfection. Everywhere, peoples, races, innumerable humanities are pursuing their destinies in universal harmony.
The Church teaches that the first man appeared on the earth six thousand years ago, in a perfec state of happiness, from which he fell, by his own sin. Prehistoric anthropology puts back the existence of humanity to a much more distant epoch. It shows us man first in a savage state, from which he gradually emerged by a constant progression until he reached the present state of civilisation. This terrestrial globe was not created in six days; it is an organism which has developed gradually through the ages. In the layers which form its surface, geology show us the successive phases of its formation. Scientific observation, and patient and persevering study of the laws of life, have shown us the action of a will which has disposed everything on a predetermined plan. It is in virtue of this plan that each being possesses in itself its principle of existence, and rises by measured gradations, from form to form, from species to species, ever towards a more perfect type. Nowhere do we find traces of the arbitrary or the miraculous, but on all sides the action of wise and profound laws, the manifestation of a universal order, of a divine thought which leaves to each the liberty and the means to develop himself, by time, work and trials. The Church, though ruling and directing the world for so many centuries, has never understood the real laws of life, and her teachings and her explanations of them have always been erroneous. Free thought and science alone have at last brought her to acknowledge her errors on a number of points and to distinguish, in Christianity, what is essential truth from what is fiction and allegory.
The Church long considered as herectics the men of science, who proclaimed the movement of the earth. Galileo was coondemned to prison for teaching that the earth revolves.¹The Irish monk Virgile was excomunicated by Pope Zacharie, because he affirmed the existence of the Antipodes.
Taking literally what was figuratively meant, the Church could not believe the world spherical, as several passages of the Scriptures seemed to indicate that it had four corners. Now, she declares that in speaking of the immobility of the earth in the centre of the universe, the Scriptures were but taking the point of view of antique ignorance, and she has accepted, in certain cases, the system of Galileo and of Descartes. But it has only come about after long hesitation, for the works of Galileo and of Copernicus were only taken off the Index in 1853. The Church has come gradually to consider as a simple fiction what used to be a dogma with her. On this point, it is therefore science which has helped to interpret the Bible more clearly.
It is the same with her view on creation. The great antiquity of our planet and its slow formation, established by science, were long condemned by the Church, as opposed to the story in Genesis. Today, she gives way under the pressure of geology, and sees only in this story a symbolic picture of the work of nature, developing through the ages, according to a divine plan.
Will she stop there? Will she not be forced to bow before history and exegesis as she has done before astronomy and geology? Will she not finally disengage the personality of Christ and His high moral mission from all the hypotheses established on His origin and His divine nature?
The Church, after having combated and denounced science, will be forced to take refuge behind her and assimilate all her discoveris if she intends to live on. Her century-old errors remain none the less as a testimony to her incapacity to attain for herself the knowledge of the universal laws. And one asks oneself, the Church having been so oftem mistaken in physical matters, which can be verified, what belief can we place in her in what concerns the mystical doctrines which have hitherto been outside of all verification.
Everything shows us that this part of her teaching is no less defective. Already, the manifestations of spirits of the dead, constantly on the increase, open up to us, in the life beyond, a new source of knowledge, which still further contributes to ruin the affirmations of dogma.
We can no longer believe in a world, a universe created from nothing, which God governs by miracles and by grace. Nor can we believe that life is merely a task of personal salvation, and work a shame and a punishment, with an eternal hell in perspective, or else a purgatory from which we can only escape through many well-paid-for prayers; or a dull and monotonous paradise, where we may be condemned to live without activity or object, for ever separated from those we have loved. We cannot believe in the sin of Adam falling on the whole of mankind, nor of its ransom by the immolation of a God upon a cross.
God, who is absolute justice, cannot desire either the damnation of a sinner, nor his salvation through the merits of a Saviour, but only through his own endeavours.
Unfortunately, the true conception of the world and of life so indispensable to the development and elevation of humanity, only belongs so far to a small minority. The masses wander through the paths of life, ignorant of the laws of nature, having for moral sustenance only the Catechism taught to children in all Christian countries, which is incomprehensible and leaves little impression upon the mind.
And yet it is of the greatest importance that men should have a correct idea of the object of existence; that all should know whence they come, what they are, whither they go, and how and why they should act.
The Church has always had the monopoly of imparting these ideas. She teaches them through the catechism. However insufficient, obscure, and out of date this instruction may be, in it has nevertheless until now lain the superiority of the Church over lay teaching; for the latter, it its hesitation or inability to give the child an exact idea of the relations of himself and the universe, with his neighbour, and with God, has put nothing in the place of this catechism. It thus gives the moral guidance of the people into the hands of an institution which represents an obsolete and worn-out ideal. It is true that we find in the new books of lay education, some pages given up to moral questions, to God and to the immortal soul, but practically these things are neglected. The teacher, finding it next to impossible to follow out the whole of a heavily-filled programme, and often himself without conviction in these matters, neglects or despises this essential part of his duty.
The catechism remains therefore the only means of moral education which can be said to be within the reach of all; and it is by it that the power of the Church perpetuates itself. But it is a teaching all on the surface, committed to memory, and not appealing to the heart and conscience. It cannot assist in developing the child's reasoning powers, or help him to resist the outside influences he will meet with.
When the poor man's child, early obliged to work for his living, and having no guide but this catechism, comes to lose belief in its teachings, he has nothing to fall back upon; incapable as he is of providing himself with an ideal, a high conception of life and its duties. Thus, this one weak tie being severed, he is an easy prey to materialism and negation, withou a weapon against the grossest appetites, and, in times of misery and want, without defence against the suggestions of suicide and depravity.
For a hundred years past, a breath of liberty has been passing over the world; thought has been throwing off its shackles; faith has diminished. But the Latin peoples still keep the imprint of the Catholic teaching which moulded them for twelve centuries. In political, financial and colonising work, the Catholic nations long showed themselves inferior to the Protestant, better prepared by their freer religious education, to exercise their own judgement. On the other hand, the Catholics excel in the arts and in letters, but is that a sufficient compensation? Catholic peoples, whose education has developed in them sentiment and imagination to the detriment of cold reason, give way easily to enthusiasm, adopt certain ideas without waiting for them to ripen, and pursue them with an ardour and exaggeration which often leads to failure; consequently we often see a Protestant nation succeed where a Catholic has failed. It is not with impunity that one can crush out of sight, for centuries, reason, that greatest faculty God has given man to guide him through the paths of destiny. By so doing, we prepare the decadence of a nation.
In all times, Catholicism has kept up a political party, working against the current of modern ideas. From this point of view, we may say that the Catholic religion develops a spirit of intolerance and resitance to progress, and keeps a nation in a state of discord and antagonism. Society is thus divided into two hostile camps, one with a forward tendency, and the other ever looking back towards the past, to the great detriment of prosperity and general peace.
The Roman Church, who has always associated herself with despotisms, when it has been to her interest, today calls for liberty. It would be a legitimate demand, if, by liberty, she did not mean privilege for herself; for she has never been reconciled to the spirit of liberty, which only began to manifest itself in the world when the power of the Church began to decline. The progress of the one has always been in exact proportion to the diminution of the other, whereas modern Protestants, accustomed by their religion to the use of liberty, have been able to apply it to civil and political life.
Even now, does not the Church condemn free thought as she once condemned free examination, as applied to the Scriptures? Does she not forbid her children to discuss or reason about religion? It is by this that we see how far the views of the Roman Church still differ from the principles of true Christianity. See what St Paul says: "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good" (1 Thess. V. 21). "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. III. 17).
The doctrine of Christ, as expressed in the Gospels, is one of liberty. This moral liberty and the sovereignty of conscience is repeated on almost all the pages of the New Testament.
The chiefs of the Church have put this out of sight, and have imposed unreasoning faith on man, thus making of the history of Catholicism the calvary of humanity.
They have forgotten that reason, - "this light," as says St John, "with which all men come into the world," - is a detached spark of the divine reason, differing from it only in power and extent, and that in obeying its laws, we are obeying God.
"Oh, Reason," says Fénélon, in one of his moments of profound intuition, "art thou not the God whom I seek?"
The right of thought is what is noblest and grandest in us. This right, the Church has always tried to prevent man from using. She has said to him: "Believe and do not reason. Remain ignorant, and lower thyself. Close thine eyes and receive the yoke." As well say at once: "Resign thy divine privilege and descend to the level of the beasts."
For reason, disdained by the Church, is the surest means which man has received from God to enable him to discover the truth; and to deny reason, is to deny God Himself, who is the source of it. It is not by the help of reason that man resolves all the problems of political and social life? Why therefore should he throw it aside when he examines the truths of religion, which he certainly cannot understand without its aid?
We have seen the consequences of our religious education in this life. Its influence often persists after death and prepares cruel surprises from credulous souls. How many Catholics, returning as spirits, have described to us, by means of mediumistic messages their anguish when, expecting as they did the promised rewards, and imbued with ideas of paradise and redemption, they found themselves instead in an empty, vast space, wandering for years in search of a chimerical felicity, and understanding nothing of their surroundings, which were so different from what they had been led to expect. Their restricted perceptions, their comprehension veiled by false doctrines and practices, did not enable them to understand or perceive the beauties of the fluidic universe.
And when, in their extra-terrestrial peregrinations, they meet those priests who conducted their religious education, and who have also returned to the spirit-state, the complaints and reproaches which they address to them meet only with troubled and anxious seeking, to which they themselves also are a prey.
Sad effects of a false teachning, which so ill-prepares the soul for the realities of its destiny.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the course of this study, we have several times compared the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church with those of Protestantism, and remarked on the superiority of the latter. Does it follow that we consider Protestantism as the most perfect of religious? Such is not our opinion.
Protestantism, in its teachings and in its worship, approaches nearer, it is true, to the simplicity of the eartly Christians. It does not put reason out of court as does Catholicism, but on the contrary, respects and uses it. Its ethics are pure, and its organisation without pomp and display. It suppresses priestly hierarchy, the worship of the Virginand Saints, pompous rites, long prayers, rosaries, amulets, in fact the whole puerile arsenal of Catholic devotion. The pastir is only a teacher of morals, who presides over the religious ceremonies, which are reduced to baptism, comunion, and preaching; to the celebration of marriages, to helping the poor, the sick and the dying. Such at least are the fundamental theories of Protestantism, but unfortunately here also the tendency today is to depart from smplicity.
Protestantism advocates the free study and interpretation of the Scriptures; by which it develops the judgment and favours instruction, which has always been considered so dangerous by the Roman Church. The Protestant therefore remains free and learns to govern himself, whereas the Catholic surrenders his reason and his liberty, to place them in the hands of the priest.
Nevertheless, however great the work of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, it is not sufficient for the needs of today. It has preserved too many unacceptable things from the mass of dogmas of the Middle Ages. For the authority of the Pope has been substituted that of a book; but the Bible, interpreted with freedom, cannot be considered as of divine inspiration.² Conscience which have escaped from the yoke of Rome, cannot place themselves under that of a work which, though doubtless worthy of respect and consideration, is of purely human origin and strewn with fictions and allegories, under which the philosophical thought is often hidden and sometimes lost.
Luther proclaimed the divinity of Christ, His miraculous birth and His resurrection; Calvin taught the doctrines of the Trinity and of predestination. The articles of the Augsburg Confession and of the Declaration of la Rochelle affirm original sin, the ransom through the blood of Christ, eternal torment, and the damnation of infants dead without baptism.
Among Protestants, even the orthodox, how many today subscribe to these affirmations and accept as a whole the Apostle's Creed, read in all the Churches, of which the Apostles had no knowledge. Alongside of orthodox Protestantism, a great party has been formed under the name of liberal Protestantism, which refuses to accept the dogmas we have enumerated, and contents itself with reconising the moral grandeur of Jesus, and of His teachings. This party counts within its ranks the most enlightened minds, who are animated by a most praiseworthy spirit of tolerance and a great love of progress, men who are worthy of all sympathy and admiration. But the Liberal Protestants have placed themselves in a delicate and falso position. They persist in remaining in the Feformed Church, after having rejected, one by one, all its points of doctrine, and its articles of faith. They have participated largely in those considerable researches of which we spoke at the beginning of this book, researches undertaken on the origin of Christianity and the authenticity of the holy books. They have submitted to a rigorous criticism all the documents on which the Christian tradition is founded. The application of the principle of free examination has led them to constant research, in consequence of which the dogmas, the miracles and a number of historical facts have lost all credence in their eyes. One thing only has remained after this examination, the Christian moral teaching. The liberal Protestants have come to place the principle of liberty and the rights of conscience above the unity faith, and in so doing, they have broken the religious bonds which united them to the Reformed Church. They are no longer really Protestants, but rather Christian free-thinkers.
It is therefore an anomaly to see them practising in all its forms, a worship which is so little in accord with their own aspirations. It seems as if they could do better, in their religious assemblies, than to read and comment on the Bible only, to sing psalms to worn-out tunes, to speak of a "strong and jealous God," or to forbid the inhabitants of Paris, as is done every Sunday in the Church of the Oratory, to "covet their neighbour's ox or his ass." Such a form of worship and such exhortations might suit the pastoral peoples of antiquity, but they cannot suply the needs of modern Christians.
To resume, Protestantism, as a whole, may be considered superior Catholicism in as far as it approaches nearer to the real thought of Christ. But it is still too much attached to the form and the letter to satisfy the needs of the modern spirit.
It would do a good work in abandoning the legacy left by the Reformation, to attach itself entirely to the evangelical spirit. The spirit of the Reformation justified its existence in the sixteenth century after a long period of despotism and of darkness, but it can no longer offer to the world anything but theological fantasies, and motives of discord between the different members of the great Christian family.
What mankind needs now is no more a belief, a faith drawn from some particular system or religion, and inspired by texts which though worthy of respect, are of very doubtful authenticity, and in which truth and error are inextricably mixed. What is need is a belief founded on proofs, on facts, a certitude based on study and experience, from which will come an ideal of justice, a true understanding of destiny, an incentive to perfection, which will regenerate the nations and link together men of all races and all religions.
Undoubtedly, there are too many historic and religious bonds of union between the modern thought and the Christian idea, for them to be entirely separated. There are in Christianity elements of progress, germs of social and moral life, which, if developed, can produce great things. The doctrine of Christ contains much teaching which has been allowed to sink out of sight, but which, rightly understood, may produce fruits of wisdom and of love, and powerful results for the general good. Let us be Christians, but let us raise ourselves above the different confessions to the pure source whence the Gospels came. Let us love Christ, but place Him above the intolerant sects, above the Churches which are trying to exclude and anathematise each other. Christ can neither be Jesuit, nor Jansenist, nor Hughenot; His arms are widely open to all mankind.
The tree is stil gigantic doubtless, but among its branches, how many have been cut and mutilated, how many have dried up, how many have remained unfruitful. The pilgrim of life stops, exhausted, under its shade, but it is in vain that he seeks there rest for his soul, confidence and the moral force necessary for him to pursue his way. He longs for a deeper rest, and more satisfying refreshment; instinctively, his eyes scan the horizon for something better.
The faith in immortality is very feeble in many of those who call themselves disciples of Christ; often their hopes waver in the icy blast of scepticism. The faithful lay their dead in the coffin, and with every blow of the hammer, a heavy doubt falls crushingly on their hearts.
The priest feels his weakness; he knows that he is frail and subject to error, even as those he is supposed to guide; and if his material position and his dignity were not in question, he would admit his insufficiency and cease to be a blind leader of the blind. He who, knowing nothing of the future life and its true laws, sets himsilf up as a leader to others, becomes that blind man spoken of in the Scripture: "If the blind lead the blind they shall both fall into the ditch" (Matt. XV. 14).
Darkness reigns in the sanctuary. There is not a single bishop who appears to know as much about the conditions of life beyond the tomb, as the lowliest initiate of ancient times, or the most humble deacon of the early Church.
Whence comes this state of things? During twelve centuries the Church dominated and moulded the human soul and society as a whole, according to her will. All power was in her hands. All authority was in her or came from her. She reigned over souls and bodies; she reigned by book and by word, by fire and by sword. She was absolute mistress of the Christian world; there was no check, no limit to her power of action. What has she made of that world? She complains of its scepticism, of its corruption and vices! Does she not see that in accusing it, she accused himself, for it is her own work. The truth is that she is powerless to direct, to improve it. The sceptical and corrupt society of the eighteenth century was the direct work of her hands. The abuses, the excesses, and the errors of the priesthood engendered that social state. It was the impossibility of believing in the dogmas of the Church which drove man to doubt and to negation.
Materialism has thoroughly penetrated the social body. But whose fault is it? If man had found in religion, as it was taught him, the moral force, the consolation, and spiritual direction which he needed, would he have detached himself from these Churches, in whose powerful hands had rested the up-bringing of so many generations? Would he have ceased to believe, to hope, and to love?
The truth is that the teachings of the Church have not succeeded in satisfying the intelligence or the conscience. If at the height of her power, the Church could not regenerate humanity, how will she be able to do so today? Ah! perhaps if she would abandon her palaces, her riches, her luxurious and theatrical worship, her gold and purple; if, coarsely clad, crucifix in hand, the bishops and princes of the Church, renouncing their wordly goods, and becoming like Christ before them, sublime vagabonds, preached to the crowds the true Gospel of peace and of love; if such things could be, perhaps then mankind might believe in them once more. But the Roman Church does not appear anxious to act this part, and the spirit of Christ is leaving her more and more. There only remains an exterior form, under which is but the corpse of a grand idea.
The Christian Churches only live by what is left in them of evangelical morality; their conception of the world, of life, and of destiny, is but a dead letter. Indeed, what can one think or say of a teaching which forced men to belive, and affirm during centuries, the immobility of the earth, and the creation of the world in six days? What can one think of a doctrine which sees in the resurrection of the flesh the only means of giving back life to the dead? How can one answer a conception of life which consists in the belief that one day all the atoms of our body must come together again? With the new lights which, each day, come to illuminate the problem of survival, all this is but a childish dream.
It is the same with the idea of God. The gravest reproach that we can make to the Church, is that of having falsified and distorted the idea of God, and thereby having rendered it odious to many. The Roman Church has always laid emphasis on the fear of God. That was the sentiment especially necessary to her scheme of dominion with the semi-barbarous peoples with which she had to deal, but it was a dangerous one, for, after having long made slaves, it ends by making rebels. It drives man to hate a God who has been shown to him only as the God of fearful and eternal chastisements, a God in whose name scaffolds and stakes are erected, in whose name blood has flowed in the torture chambers. From thence has come this violent reaction, this furious negation and bitter hatred of God the despot and tormentor, which finds expression in the cry, which echoes everywhere today, in our homes, in our public places, in our press:- "Neither God nor Master."
If we add the terrible discipline inflicted on the faithful by the Church in the Middle Ages, fastings, mortification, the continual fear of damnation, when a look, or word, or guilty thought, rendered them liable to the pains of hell, we shall understand what a sobre ideal, what a reign of terror was instituted through the world by the Church, driving people to renounce all that constitute civilisation and social life, and to think only of personal salvation, regardless of natural laws, which are also divine. If we would know God and approach Him, it is only by love that we can do so; it is love alone which vivifies and attracts. God is all love, and to understand Him, we must cultivate in ourselves that divine spark; we must cease to live for ourselves, and live in that divine region which embraces all creation. God is in every man who knows how to love. To love and cultivate the divine in ourselves and in humanity, this is the secret of all progress, of all elevation. This is why it has been said, "Love God above all things, and thy neighbour as thyself." It is thus the great Christians souls attained such sublime heights. It is by such means that St Vincent de Paul, St Francis d"Assisi and others, have been enabled to accomplish work which has called forth the wonder of ages. Their ardent charity was not inspired by the Catholic Dogmas. It was from the Gopspels that those noble spirits drew the faith and love which animated them.
The conception of the world and of life shared the same fate as that of God. For long the Church imposed on the intelligence that old theory which made of the earth the most important and central body of the universe, and of the Sun and Planets her satellites, turning around her. The heavens were a solid vault, above it was throned the Eternal, surrounded by celestial armies; under the earth were the deep inferior places, the hells. The world, created six thousand years ago, was soon to be destroyed. This ending was a constante menace held over the head of mankind. With the end of the world was to coincide a terrible judgement, final and universal, at which the dead would rise from their tombs, clad in their carnal bodies, to appear before the tribunal of God. Modern astronomy has destroyed these conceptions. It has shown us that our globe is but a single unit in the great family of celestial bodies, that the vastness of the heavens is peopled by an infinite number of worlds. Everywhere the earths, suns, spheres in course of formation, of development or of decadence, tell us the marvels of an incessante eternal creation, in which the forms of life are multiplied, follow each other, and renew themselves. Among these worlds which roll in the immensity of spaces, our earth is but a grain of sand, an atom lost in infinity. This atom, the Church insists, is the only inhabited one. But science, philosophy, and the revelation of spirits, show us life appearing on the surface of these worlds, and elevating itself little by little, through slow transformations, towards an ideal of beauty and of perfection. Everywhere, peoples, races, innumerable humanities are pursuing their destinies in universal harmony.
The Church teaches that the first man appeared on the earth six thousand years ago, in a perfec state of happiness, from which he fell, by his own sin. Prehistoric anthropology puts back the existence of humanity to a much more distant epoch. It shows us man first in a savage state, from which he gradually emerged by a constant progression until he reached the present state of civilisation. This terrestrial globe was not created in six days; it is an organism which has developed gradually through the ages. In the layers which form its surface, geology show us the successive phases of its formation. Scientific observation, and patient and persevering study of the laws of life, have shown us the action of a will which has disposed everything on a predetermined plan. It is in virtue of this plan that each being possesses in itself its principle of existence, and rises by measured gradations, from form to form, from species to species, ever towards a more perfect type. Nowhere do we find traces of the arbitrary or the miraculous, but on all sides the action of wise and profound laws, the manifestation of a universal order, of a divine thought which leaves to each the liberty and the means to develop himself, by time, work and trials. The Church, though ruling and directing the world for so many centuries, has never understood the real laws of life, and her teachings and her explanations of them have always been erroneous. Free thought and science alone have at last brought her to acknowledge her errors on a number of points and to distinguish, in Christianity, what is essential truth from what is fiction and allegory.
The Church long considered as herectics the men of science, who proclaimed the movement of the earth. Galileo was coondemned to prison for teaching that the earth revolves.¹The Irish monk Virgile was excomunicated by Pope Zacharie, because he affirmed the existence of the Antipodes.
Taking literally what was figuratively meant, the Church could not believe the world spherical, as several passages of the Scriptures seemed to indicate that it had four corners. Now, she declares that in speaking of the immobility of the earth in the centre of the universe, the Scriptures were but taking the point of view of antique ignorance, and she has accepted, in certain cases, the system of Galileo and of Descartes. But it has only come about after long hesitation, for the works of Galileo and of Copernicus were only taken off the Index in 1853. The Church has come gradually to consider as a simple fiction what used to be a dogma with her. On this point, it is therefore science which has helped to interpret the Bible more clearly.
It is the same with her view on creation. The great antiquity of our planet and its slow formation, established by science, were long condemned by the Church, as opposed to the story in Genesis. Today, she gives way under the pressure of geology, and sees only in this story a symbolic picture of the work of nature, developing through the ages, according to a divine plan.
Will she stop there? Will she not be forced to bow before history and exegesis as she has done before astronomy and geology? Will she not finally disengage the personality of Christ and His high moral mission from all the hypotheses established on His origin and His divine nature?
The Church, after having combated and denounced science, will be forced to take refuge behind her and assimilate all her discoveris if she intends to live on. Her century-old errors remain none the less as a testimony to her incapacity to attain for herself the knowledge of the universal laws. And one asks oneself, the Church having been so oftem mistaken in physical matters, which can be verified, what belief can we place in her in what concerns the mystical doctrines which have hitherto been outside of all verification.
Everything shows us that this part of her teaching is no less defective. Already, the manifestations of spirits of the dead, constantly on the increase, open up to us, in the life beyond, a new source of knowledge, which still further contributes to ruin the affirmations of dogma.
We can no longer believe in a world, a universe created from nothing, which God governs by miracles and by grace. Nor can we believe that life is merely a task of personal salvation, and work a shame and a punishment, with an eternal hell in perspective, or else a purgatory from which we can only escape through many well-paid-for prayers; or a dull and monotonous paradise, where we may be condemned to live without activity or object, for ever separated from those we have loved. We cannot believe in the sin of Adam falling on the whole of mankind, nor of its ransom by the immolation of a God upon a cross.
God, who is absolute justice, cannot desire either the damnation of a sinner, nor his salvation through the merits of a Saviour, but only through his own endeavours.
Unfortunately, the true conception of the world and of life so indispensable to the development and elevation of humanity, only belongs so far to a small minority. The masses wander through the paths of life, ignorant of the laws of nature, having for moral sustenance only the Catechism taught to children in all Christian countries, which is incomprehensible and leaves little impression upon the mind.
And yet it is of the greatest importance that men should have a correct idea of the object of existence; that all should know whence they come, what they are, whither they go, and how and why they should act.
The Church has always had the monopoly of imparting these ideas. She teaches them through the catechism. However insufficient, obscure, and out of date this instruction may be, in it has nevertheless until now lain the superiority of the Church over lay teaching; for the latter, it its hesitation or inability to give the child an exact idea of the relations of himself and the universe, with his neighbour, and with God, has put nothing in the place of this catechism. It thus gives the moral guidance of the people into the hands of an institution which represents an obsolete and worn-out ideal. It is true that we find in the new books of lay education, some pages given up to moral questions, to God and to the immortal soul, but practically these things are neglected. The teacher, finding it next to impossible to follow out the whole of a heavily-filled programme, and often himself without conviction in these matters, neglects or despises this essential part of his duty.
The catechism remains therefore the only means of moral education which can be said to be within the reach of all; and it is by it that the power of the Church perpetuates itself. But it is a teaching all on the surface, committed to memory, and not appealing to the heart and conscience. It cannot assist in developing the child's reasoning powers, or help him to resist the outside influences he will meet with.
When the poor man's child, early obliged to work for his living, and having no guide but this catechism, comes to lose belief in its teachings, he has nothing to fall back upon; incapable as he is of providing himself with an ideal, a high conception of life and its duties. Thus, this one weak tie being severed, he is an easy prey to materialism and negation, withou a weapon against the grossest appetites, and, in times of misery and want, without defence against the suggestions of suicide and depravity.
For a hundred years past, a breath of liberty has been passing over the world; thought has been throwing off its shackles; faith has diminished. But the Latin peoples still keep the imprint of the Catholic teaching which moulded them for twelve centuries. In political, financial and colonising work, the Catholic nations long showed themselves inferior to the Protestant, better prepared by their freer religious education, to exercise their own judgement. On the other hand, the Catholics excel in the arts and in letters, but is that a sufficient compensation? Catholic peoples, whose education has developed in them sentiment and imagination to the detriment of cold reason, give way easily to enthusiasm, adopt certain ideas without waiting for them to ripen, and pursue them with an ardour and exaggeration which often leads to failure; consequently we often see a Protestant nation succeed where a Catholic has failed. It is not with impunity that one can crush out of sight, for centuries, reason, that greatest faculty God has given man to guide him through the paths of destiny. By so doing, we prepare the decadence of a nation.
In all times, Catholicism has kept up a political party, working against the current of modern ideas. From this point of view, we may say that the Catholic religion develops a spirit of intolerance and resitance to progress, and keeps a nation in a state of discord and antagonism. Society is thus divided into two hostile camps, one with a forward tendency, and the other ever looking back towards the past, to the great detriment of prosperity and general peace.
The Roman Church, who has always associated herself with despotisms, when it has been to her interest, today calls for liberty. It would be a legitimate demand, if, by liberty, she did not mean privilege for herself; for she has never been reconciled to the spirit of liberty, which only began to manifest itself in the world when the power of the Church began to decline. The progress of the one has always been in exact proportion to the diminution of the other, whereas modern Protestants, accustomed by their religion to the use of liberty, have been able to apply it to civil and political life.
Even now, does not the Church condemn free thought as she once condemned free examination, as applied to the Scriptures? Does she not forbid her children to discuss or reason about religion? It is by this that we see how far the views of the Roman Church still differ from the principles of true Christianity. See what St Paul says: "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good" (1 Thess. V. 21). "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. III. 17).
The doctrine of Christ, as expressed in the Gospels, is one of liberty. This moral liberty and the sovereignty of conscience is repeated on almost all the pages of the New Testament.
The chiefs of the Church have put this out of sight, and have imposed unreasoning faith on man, thus making of the history of Catholicism the calvary of humanity.
They have forgotten that reason, - "this light," as says St John, "with which all men come into the world," - is a detached spark of the divine reason, differing from it only in power and extent, and that in obeying its laws, we are obeying God.
"Oh, Reason," says Fénélon, in one of his moments of profound intuition, "art thou not the God whom I seek?"
The right of thought is what is noblest and grandest in us. This right, the Church has always tried to prevent man from using. She has said to him: "Believe and do not reason. Remain ignorant, and lower thyself. Close thine eyes and receive the yoke." As well say at once: "Resign thy divine privilege and descend to the level of the beasts."
For reason, disdained by the Church, is the surest means which man has received from God to enable him to discover the truth; and to deny reason, is to deny God Himself, who is the source of it. It is not by the help of reason that man resolves all the problems of political and social life? Why therefore should he throw it aside when he examines the truths of religion, which he certainly cannot understand without its aid?
We have seen the consequences of our religious education in this life. Its influence often persists after death and prepares cruel surprises from credulous souls. How many Catholics, returning as spirits, have described to us, by means of mediumistic messages their anguish when, expecting as they did the promised rewards, and imbued with ideas of paradise and redemption, they found themselves instead in an empty, vast space, wandering for years in search of a chimerical felicity, and understanding nothing of their surroundings, which were so different from what they had been led to expect. Their restricted perceptions, their comprehension veiled by false doctrines and practices, did not enable them to understand or perceive the beauties of the fluidic universe.
And when, in their extra-terrestrial peregrinations, they meet those priests who conducted their religious education, and who have also returned to the spirit-state, the complaints and reproaches which they address to them meet only with troubled and anxious seeking, to which they themselves also are a prey.
Sad effects of a false teachning, which so ill-prepares the soul for the realities of its destiny.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the course of this study, we have several times compared the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church with those of Protestantism, and remarked on the superiority of the latter. Does it follow that we consider Protestantism as the most perfect of religious? Such is not our opinion.
Protestantism, in its teachings and in its worship, approaches nearer, it is true, to the simplicity of the eartly Christians. It does not put reason out of court as does Catholicism, but on the contrary, respects and uses it. Its ethics are pure, and its organisation without pomp and display. It suppresses priestly hierarchy, the worship of the Virginand Saints, pompous rites, long prayers, rosaries, amulets, in fact the whole puerile arsenal of Catholic devotion. The pastir is only a teacher of morals, who presides over the religious ceremonies, which are reduced to baptism, comunion, and preaching; to the celebration of marriages, to helping the poor, the sick and the dying. Such at least are the fundamental theories of Protestantism, but unfortunately here also the tendency today is to depart from smplicity.
Protestantism advocates the free study and interpretation of the Scriptures; by which it develops the judgment and favours instruction, which has always been considered so dangerous by the Roman Church. The Protestant therefore remains free and learns to govern himself, whereas the Catholic surrenders his reason and his liberty, to place them in the hands of the priest.
Nevertheless, however great the work of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, it is not sufficient for the needs of today. It has preserved too many unacceptable things from the mass of dogmas of the Middle Ages. For the authority of the Pope has been substituted that of a book; but the Bible, interpreted with freedom, cannot be considered as of divine inspiration.² Conscience which have escaped from the yoke of Rome, cannot place themselves under that of a work which, though doubtless worthy of respect and consideration, is of purely human origin and strewn with fictions and allegories, under which the philosophical thought is often hidden and sometimes lost.
Luther proclaimed the divinity of Christ, His miraculous birth and His resurrection; Calvin taught the doctrines of the Trinity and of predestination. The articles of the Augsburg Confession and of the Declaration of la Rochelle affirm original sin, the ransom through the blood of Christ, eternal torment, and the damnation of infants dead without baptism.
Among Protestants, even the orthodox, how many today subscribe to these affirmations and accept as a whole the Apostle's Creed, read in all the Churches, of which the Apostles had no knowledge. Alongside of orthodox Protestantism, a great party has been formed under the name of liberal Protestantism, which refuses to accept the dogmas we have enumerated, and contents itself with reconising the moral grandeur of Jesus, and of His teachings. This party counts within its ranks the most enlightened minds, who are animated by a most praiseworthy spirit of tolerance and a great love of progress, men who are worthy of all sympathy and admiration. But the Liberal Protestants have placed themselves in a delicate and falso position. They persist in remaining in the Feformed Church, after having rejected, one by one, all its points of doctrine, and its articles of faith. They have participated largely in those considerable researches of which we spoke at the beginning of this book, researches undertaken on the origin of Christianity and the authenticity of the holy books. They have submitted to a rigorous criticism all the documents on which the Christian tradition is founded. The application of the principle of free examination has led them to constant research, in consequence of which the dogmas, the miracles and a number of historical facts have lost all credence in their eyes. One thing only has remained after this examination, the Christian moral teaching. The liberal Protestants have come to place the principle of liberty and the rights of conscience above the unity faith, and in so doing, they have broken the religious bonds which united them to the Reformed Church. They are no longer really Protestants, but rather Christian free-thinkers.
It is therefore an anomaly to see them practising in all its forms, a worship which is so little in accord with their own aspirations. It seems as if they could do better, in their religious assemblies, than to read and comment on the Bible only, to sing psalms to worn-out tunes, to speak of a "strong and jealous God," or to forbid the inhabitants of Paris, as is done every Sunday in the Church of the Oratory, to "covet their neighbour's ox or his ass." Such a form of worship and such exhortations might suit the pastoral peoples of antiquity, but they cannot suply the needs of modern Christians.
To resume, Protestantism, as a whole, may be considered superior Catholicism in as far as it approaches nearer to the real thought of Christ. But it is still too much attached to the form and the letter to satisfy the needs of the modern spirit.
It would do a good work in abandoning the legacy left by the Reformation, to attach itself entirely to the evangelical spirit. The spirit of the Reformation justified its existence in the sixteenth century after a long period of despotism and of darkness, but it can no longer offer to the world anything but theological fantasies, and motives of discord between the different members of the great Christian family.
What mankind needs now is no more a belief, a faith drawn from some particular system or religion, and inspired by texts which though worthy of respect, are of very doubtful authenticity, and in which truth and error are inextricably mixed. What is need is a belief founded on proofs, on facts, a certitude based on study and experience, from which will come an ideal of justice, a true understanding of destiny, an incentive to perfection, which will regenerate the nations and link together men of all races and all religions.
Undoubtedly, there are too many historic and religious bonds of union between the modern thought and the Christian idea, for them to be entirely separated. There are in Christianity elements of progress, germs of social and moral life, which, if developed, can produce great things. The doctrine of Christ contains much teaching which has been allowed to sink out of sight, but which, rightly understood, may produce fruits of wisdom and of love, and powerful results for the general good. Let us be Christians, but let us raise ourselves above the different confessions to the pure source whence the Gospels came. Let us love Christ, but place Him above the intolerant sects, above the Churches which are trying to exclude and anathematise each other. Christ can neither be Jesuit, nor Jansenist, nor Hughenot; His arms are widely open to all mankind.
Next: CHAPTER VIII - THE DECADENCE OF
CHRISTIANITY - Second Part
| ° SPIRIT
MESSAGES |
THE
ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
Due to these considerations we have always abstained from publishing anything that bears this name; and we believe that one cannot be too circumspect in publications of this type, that has authenticity solely due to self-love, and this minor inconvenience would furnish weapons to the adversaries of Spiritism.
As we have already said, the more elevated the Spirits are in the hierarchy, the more distrusting we should be in accepting their name; It would be necessary for one to be endowed with a great dose of pride to boast of having the privilege of receiving their communications and believe that one would be worthy in speaking with them as if their equals.
In the preceding communication, we can be certain of one thing: the incontestable superiority of the language and of the thoughts, allowing each individual to carefully judge if whose name it carries, would deny it."
5. I have come, as I came on
another occasion to those misguided sons and daughters of Israel, to bring the truth and to
dissipate the darkness. Harken unto me! As my words in the past have done, so must Spiritism remind the
incredulous that above them reigns the immutable truth which is the existence of the good
God, the great God, who causes the plants to germinate and the waves to
rise up. As a reaper, I
have gathered in sheaves the scattered goodness in the breasts of
humanity and said: "Come
unto me, all you who suffer."
But Man with ungratefulness has
moved away from the straight and wide path which leads to the Kingdom of my Father and has
followed the bleak pathways of impiety. My Father does not wish to annihilate the human race; He
wants the living and the dead, that is to say those who are dead according to the flesh because
death does not exist, to assist each other mutually and listen no more to the voice of the prophets and
apostles, but listen instead to those who no longer live upon Earth and who proclaim: "Pray and
believe! Death is the resurrection and life is an ordeal you seek,
during which the virtues you have
cultivated will grow and develop, even as the cedar tree."
Those of you who are weak and
know the obscurity of your own minds, do not deviate from the beacon which divine clemency has put
into your hands so as to enlighten your pathway and reconduct you, who are lost children,
once again to the bosom of the Father.
I am too much overcome with
compassion for your miseries and by your immense weakness not to extend a helping hand to all
those unhappily misguided who, while looking up to Heaven, fall into the pit of error. Believe,
love, and meditate on these things which are revealed unto you. Do not mix the chaff with the good seed,
nor the Utopias with the truth.
Spiritists! Love one another,
that is the first precept; educate yourselves is the second. Within Christianity you will find all
the truths. The errors in which Man has become enrooted are all of human origin. Here from beyond
the grave, where you thought there was nothing, voices clamour: "Brothers and sisters! Nothing
perishes! Jesus Christ is the victor over all evil, you can be the victors over impiety." - The Spirit of Truth (Paris, 1860).
[Excerpt from The Gospel According to Spiritism,
Chap. 6 - CHRIST THE CONSOLER - Instructions from the Spirits - item 5]
Editor's Note: The above message was originally published in the Chapter XXXI, item IX of The Mediums Book, with a note from Allan Kardec himself, which reads:
"This communication, obtained by one of the best mediums of the Spiritist Society of Paris, is signed with a name whose due respect does not permit us to reproduce it unless without much reservation, so great would the illustrious mark in favor of its authenticity be, and because there has been so much abuse by the use of it in evidently apocryphal communications. This name is that of Jesus of Nazareth. In no manner do we doubt that he could manifest himself; but truly superior spirits only do so under exceptional circumstances, reason prevents us in believing that a pure Spirit by its excellence would respond to the call of anybody. In any event, it would be a profanation to attribute language unworthy of him.Due to these considerations we have always abstained from publishing anything that bears this name; and we believe that one cannot be too circumspect in publications of this type, that has authenticity solely due to self-love, and this minor inconvenience would furnish weapons to the adversaries of Spiritism.
As we have already said, the more elevated the Spirits are in the hierarchy, the more distrusting we should be in accepting their name; It would be necessary for one to be endowed with a great dose of pride to boast of having the privilege of receiving their communications and believe that one would be worthy in speaking with them as if their equals.
In the preceding communication, we can be certain of one thing: the incontestable superiority of the language and of the thoughts, allowing each individual to carefully judge if whose name it carries, would deny it."
Surprisingly,
both translations into English of this book, by Emma A. Wood and Anna Blackwell, suppressed it from
publishing. The first translation in fact suppressed the two last
chapters of the original book entirely and the latter, although
publishing these two chapters, skipped solely the above message. The
message and Kardec's note appear in the Portuguese and Spanish
translations.
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to
Content
I have been longing for the opportunity to visit St. Petersburg and attend a meeting of the Spiritist Society of Florida. It finally happened on the weekend of October 29, when my wife and I travelled to that attractive and charming region of Florida.
I met Yvonne Limoges through the internet about five and a half years ago, and since then we have always remained in contact, sharing ideas about Spiritism and discussing the most appropriate way as how to spread its teachings to the American audience.
We were thrilled by the caring and kindness of our hostess Yvonne Limoges, who picked us up at Tampa's airport and kindly offered us to stay at her home througout the weekend. Furthermore, she took us for an exciting session of sightseeing throughout downtown St. Petersburg, the charming Treasure Island, the various neighborhoods and finally made reservations in a cozy restaurant, where we had a delightful meal on Saturday evening.
Knowing Yvonne well for all these years and acknowledging the greatness of the work that she and her father, Edgar Crespo, have being doing to spread the teachings of Spiritism in America, the main reason for this trip for me was indeed to see the Spiritist Society of Florida at work. The opportunity finally arrive and we were able to attend the meeting and personally meet the members of this harmonious group that we so dearly admire.
The first part of the meeting is dedicated to the study of mediumship, and is mostly composed of the mediums who take active part in the mediumship session, as well as others interested in the study of this matter. It works as a preparation for the main meeting - the mediumship session - and it is an excellent opportunity for those interested in knowing about the intricacies of practical mediumship. Besides the topics that are addressed at this study, all strictly under the view of the codification, the mediums provide concrete and substantial informations about their own practical experience, advising those present about the seriousness and important role that mediumship can play in people's lives if it is properly utilized and dealt with.
The mediumship session was held thereafter, and for both Márcia and I it was the first time we were able to attend one that is open to the public. By the end of the first part of the meeting, which lasted for one hour, the public is already gathered and eargerly waiting for the mediumship session. The mediums take place at the table, which is placed right in front of the public and then the meeting begins.
I would like to emphasize that everything related to these monthly meetings of the Spiritist Society of Florida are carefully prepared ahead of time by Yvonne Limoges, the Director of the society, who assumes the responsibility with such a devotion that one can't help but to be moved. We could perceive this from the moment we stepped in her house the day before the meeting, where we witnessed all her care and concern about the preparation for the meeting and the innumerable phone calls that she received from people who were interested in attending the meeting.
In the same manner, she is the one who carefully leads the entire mediumship session, paying attention to everything that goes on at the table, as well as to the public present at the meeting, and as an experienced and well assisted medium she addresses the mediums at the table and the communicating spirits and yet, gives communication herself.
At the beginning of the meeting she addresses the public and explains to them the importance and the serious character of the meeting session, asking them to help the mediums with their best thoughts in order to allow the presence of the good spirits who will conduct the work at the meeting. Immediately after, a prayer is made and the mediumship session begins.
Although we were spiritists for many years, and this the first time we experienced an open mediumship session: curiosity or uncertainty was not what moved us, for we were absolutely sure of the excellence and the remarkable work that Yvonne Limoges and her father Edgar Crespo do, with the help of the other members of the Spiritist Society of Florida to spread the teachings of the Spiritist Doctrine in this country for decades.
However, I cannot deny that inside of me there was this latent sense of inquiry as how this type of mediumship session, that is, one that is open to the public, are beneficial to the general public in providing a better understanding regarding the faculty and the practice of mediumship. By what I have witnessed in this meeting, the answer came to me in such a clear way that I am not afraid to say that it is unquestionably very beneficial indeed.
It is sad that such an important and natural faculty, one that if well understood and correctly dealt with, will definitely bring forth much help in diminishing suffering in our world, is yet treated with so much incomprehension and at times contempt. I would say that this circumstances would drastically change if meetings such as the one handled by the Spiritist Society of Florida would proliferate. Besides being an opportunity for those who possess the faculty ostensibly and want to educate themselves in this matter, it is also a great opportunity for helping the general public to have a correct understanding of the importance of this natural faculty, which is granted for many as a tool to help themselves in their march towards moral progress. Another great advantage of this type of meetings is to remove a certain aspect of secrecy and mysticism that already prevails in peoples' mind due to the fact that they are only conducted in privacy.
I understand that there will be need for certain types of mediumship meetings to be carried in privacy due to the characteristics of the work that take place on them, for example the disobsession meetings, but not necessarily all of them.
We were blessed for the opportunity of attending the Spiritist Society of Florida's mediumship session of October 29, 2006. There were so many touching and inspirational communications from the spiritual friends that brought many to tears, including myself. Amongst them, two touched me deeply, the one from Don, Yvonne's deceased husband, and the one from Father Germain.
After all, we are glad to say that throughout the entire meeting we were invaded by an intense and indescribable feeling of Peace and Fraternal Love. For this joyful weekend and such an unique experience, we are so grateful to Yvonne Limoges and all the members of the Spiritist Society of Florida.
Antonio Leite
Member of the Editorial Council of GEAE - Advanced Study Group of Spiritism
Back to Content
Back
to
Content
| ° ARTICLES |
I have been longing for the opportunity to visit St. Petersburg and attend a meeting of the Spiritist Society of Florida. It finally happened on the weekend of October 29, when my wife and I travelled to that attractive and charming region of Florida.
I met Yvonne Limoges through the internet about five and a half years ago, and since then we have always remained in contact, sharing ideas about Spiritism and discussing the most appropriate way as how to spread its teachings to the American audience.
We were thrilled by the caring and kindness of our hostess Yvonne Limoges, who picked us up at Tampa's airport and kindly offered us to stay at her home througout the weekend. Furthermore, she took us for an exciting session of sightseeing throughout downtown St. Petersburg, the charming Treasure Island, the various neighborhoods and finally made reservations in a cozy restaurant, where we had a delightful meal on Saturday evening.
Knowing Yvonne well for all these years and acknowledging the greatness of the work that she and her father, Edgar Crespo, have being doing to spread the teachings of Spiritism in America, the main reason for this trip for me was indeed to see the Spiritist Society of Florida at work. The opportunity finally arrive and we were able to attend the meeting and personally meet the members of this harmonious group that we so dearly admire.
The first part of the meeting is dedicated to the study of mediumship, and is mostly composed of the mediums who take active part in the mediumship session, as well as others interested in the study of this matter. It works as a preparation for the main meeting - the mediumship session - and it is an excellent opportunity for those interested in knowing about the intricacies of practical mediumship. Besides the topics that are addressed at this study, all strictly under the view of the codification, the mediums provide concrete and substantial informations about their own practical experience, advising those present about the seriousness and important role that mediumship can play in people's lives if it is properly utilized and dealt with.
The mediumship session was held thereafter, and for both Márcia and I it was the first time we were able to attend one that is open to the public. By the end of the first part of the meeting, which lasted for one hour, the public is already gathered and eargerly waiting for the mediumship session. The mediums take place at the table, which is placed right in front of the public and then the meeting begins.
I would like to emphasize that everything related to these monthly meetings of the Spiritist Society of Florida are carefully prepared ahead of time by Yvonne Limoges, the Director of the society, who assumes the responsibility with such a devotion that one can't help but to be moved. We could perceive this from the moment we stepped in her house the day before the meeting, where we witnessed all her care and concern about the preparation for the meeting and the innumerable phone calls that she received from people who were interested in attending the meeting.
In the same manner, she is the one who carefully leads the entire mediumship session, paying attention to everything that goes on at the table, as well as to the public present at the meeting, and as an experienced and well assisted medium she addresses the mediums at the table and the communicating spirits and yet, gives communication herself.
At the beginning of the meeting she addresses the public and explains to them the importance and the serious character of the meeting session, asking them to help the mediums with their best thoughts in order to allow the presence of the good spirits who will conduct the work at the meeting. Immediately after, a prayer is made and the mediumship session begins.
Although we were spiritists for many years, and this the first time we experienced an open mediumship session: curiosity or uncertainty was not what moved us, for we were absolutely sure of the excellence and the remarkable work that Yvonne Limoges and her father Edgar Crespo do, with the help of the other members of the Spiritist Society of Florida to spread the teachings of the Spiritist Doctrine in this country for decades.
However, I cannot deny that inside of me there was this latent sense of inquiry as how this type of mediumship session, that is, one that is open to the public, are beneficial to the general public in providing a better understanding regarding the faculty and the practice of mediumship. By what I have witnessed in this meeting, the answer came to me in such a clear way that I am not afraid to say that it is unquestionably very beneficial indeed.
It is sad that such an important and natural faculty, one that if well understood and correctly dealt with, will definitely bring forth much help in diminishing suffering in our world, is yet treated with so much incomprehension and at times contempt. I would say that this circumstances would drastically change if meetings such as the one handled by the Spiritist Society of Florida would proliferate. Besides being an opportunity for those who possess the faculty ostensibly and want to educate themselves in this matter, it is also a great opportunity for helping the general public to have a correct understanding of the importance of this natural faculty, which is granted for many as a tool to help themselves in their march towards moral progress. Another great advantage of this type of meetings is to remove a certain aspect of secrecy and mysticism that already prevails in peoples' mind due to the fact that they are only conducted in privacy.
I understand that there will be need for certain types of mediumship meetings to be carried in privacy due to the characteristics of the work that take place on them, for example the disobsession meetings, but not necessarily all of them.
We were blessed for the opportunity of attending the Spiritist Society of Florida's mediumship session of October 29, 2006. There were so many touching and inspirational communications from the spiritual friends that brought many to tears, including myself. Amongst them, two touched me deeply, the one from Don, Yvonne's deceased husband, and the one from Father Germain.
After all, we are glad to say that throughout the entire meeting we were invaded by an intense and indescribable feeling of Peace and Fraternal Love. For this joyful weekend and such an unique experience, we are so grateful to Yvonne Limoges and all the members of the Spiritist Society of Florida.
Antonio Leite
Member of the Editorial Council of GEAE - Advanced Study Group of Spiritism
Back to Content
THANK YOU, WE ENJOYED
YOUR COMPANY!
[A MEETING AT THE SPIRITIST SOCIETY OF FLORIDA]
In a recent article written by Richard Simonetti in the July/August issue of the Brazilian Spiritist newsletter Dirigente Espirita, he states:
Our general meeting is divided into several sections with specific purposes. First, there is a welcoming of anyone new and before the meeting begins I personally speak with all privately to hear a little of what they know, how they found out about our meeting, make sure they are prepared, and are at the right place they intended to be. I provide each of them with a newcomer’s package of material that includes an agenda and the rules that are to be abided by during the meeting. At this time the newsletters are passed out as well. Secondly, everyone is welcomed in general and there is discussion regarding any new business. The instruction of the Doctrine portion of the meeting begins with a reading of a Spiritist work and afterwards comments are made by the mediums (who are more experienced in the Doctrine) regarding this topic of the day. The topic is finally opened for comments, questions, and general discussion by anyone in attendance. Once the issue is fully discussed (a serious moral and spiritual issue related to Spiritism) we now start the reading of prayers (both specific and general). The opening prayer is said to open up the spirit session and the mediums proceed with their sacred work, directed and conducted in an orderly fashion. There is silence by attendees during the session. Afterwards, a closing prayer is said and the entire meeting ends. At times the mediums provide private counsel to some attendees afterwards. Prior to each meeting and afterwards as well, there are many hugs of affection with each other amongst our members.
Anyone who would newly attend one of our meetings would immediately be able to tell that it is of a very serious and spiritual nature that demands proper conduct. Our mediums all have over thirty years experience and are very knowledgeable regarding the Spiritist Doctrine. In meeting and practicing since 1978 we have never had an interruption or disruption of our proceedings. We do not advertise but go by word of mouth. The majority of newcomers generally are referred by our members or previous attendees. Others find us via our Website and make contact with us before they attend.
As director, I prepare a week ahead of time by praying to God and the good spirits to prepare the ambience for our meeting and for spiritual protection. The mediums also start in advance to prepare themselves for their most sacred, serious, and responsible task. We firmly believe that whoever enters our center is meant to be there by the Will of God and by providing an open session we provide a charity.
Back to Content[A MEETING AT THE SPIRITIST SOCIETY OF FLORIDA]
It was a great pleasure to have you both visit with my family, attend one of our study classes, and also our general meeting wherein we have Doctrinal instruction, prayers, and conduct a spirit session.
Holding open spirit communication meetings is nothing new. I have personally attended other Spiritist centers where this was done with great success. My father’s Spiritist Center established in 1933 conducted public spirit sessions up through at least the 1980’s.
In a recent article written by Richard Simonetti in the July/August issue of the Brazilian Spiritist newsletter Dirigente Espirita, he states:
“Do you take
part in mediumship meetings?
If the reader’s answer is a negative one, I feel sorry for you. I would not dare to say that your faith is dead. I only feel [sorry for you] in missing the opportunity. The interchange with the unknown [the spirit world] is a marvelous achievement of Spiritism, this blessing from heaven in our hands, renders us inestimable benefits:
If the reader’s answer is a negative one, I feel sorry for you. I would not dare to say that your faith is dead. I only feel [sorry for you] in missing the opportunity. The interchange with the unknown [the spirit world] is a marvelous achievement of Spiritism, this blessing from heaven in our hands, renders us inestimable benefits:
- The contact with loved ones who preceded us in the trip to the beyond.
- The help of the spirit mentors in our weaknesses.
- The help to keep eventually bad influences away from us.
- The incentive for to renew oneself through these mirrors of our souls represented by the spirits who harvest the consequences of actions that today mark our behavior.
A Spiritist who
does not take part in mediumship meetings remind me of the sedentary
man who is not willing to practice healthy exercises. Well dear
reader, if you answered affirmatively to the initial question,
congratulations!”
Our
Center conducts classes on
mediumship first and this instruction is geared to the level of the
attendees. We are solely at a discussion/instruction level with this
current group. We do conduct private spirit sessions for those who
are having spiritual problems.
Our general meeting is divided into several sections with specific purposes. First, there is a welcoming of anyone new and before the meeting begins I personally speak with all privately to hear a little of what they know, how they found out about our meeting, make sure they are prepared, and are at the right place they intended to be. I provide each of them with a newcomer’s package of material that includes an agenda and the rules that are to be abided by during the meeting. At this time the newsletters are passed out as well. Secondly, everyone is welcomed in general and there is discussion regarding any new business. The instruction of the Doctrine portion of the meeting begins with a reading of a Spiritist work and afterwards comments are made by the mediums (who are more experienced in the Doctrine) regarding this topic of the day. The topic is finally opened for comments, questions, and general discussion by anyone in attendance. Once the issue is fully discussed (a serious moral and spiritual issue related to Spiritism) we now start the reading of prayers (both specific and general). The opening prayer is said to open up the spirit session and the mediums proceed with their sacred work, directed and conducted in an orderly fashion. There is silence by attendees during the session. Afterwards, a closing prayer is said and the entire meeting ends. At times the mediums provide private counsel to some attendees afterwards. Prior to each meeting and afterwards as well, there are many hugs of affection with each other amongst our members.
Anyone who would newly attend one of our meetings would immediately be able to tell that it is of a very serious and spiritual nature that demands proper conduct. Our mediums all have over thirty years experience and are very knowledgeable regarding the Spiritist Doctrine. In meeting and practicing since 1978 we have never had an interruption or disruption of our proceedings. We do not advertise but go by word of mouth. The majority of newcomers generally are referred by our members or previous attendees. Others find us via our Website and make contact with us before they attend.
As director, I prepare a week ahead of time by praying to God and the good spirits to prepare the ambience for our meeting and for spiritual protection. The mediums also start in advance to prepare themselves for their most sacred, serious, and responsible task. We firmly believe that whoever enters our center is meant to be there by the Will of God and by providing an open session we provide a charity.
Some
of our members
have been with us since 1978 and overall (even with newcomers
attending now and then) I consider our group spiritually harmonious.
The participants are instructed that they too play an important role
in providing a proper attitude and sympathy of purpose for the spirit
session.
I personally believe it takes continuous study of the Doctrine, much heartfelt prayer, faithful dedication, serious intent, and consistency of practice to maintain mediums and a group that can successfully conduct spirit sessions that are morally and spiritually instructive and productive. We thank God and the good spirits for their continued protection, support, consolation, moral and spiritual teachings, and constant inspiration! We exist by the grace of God.
I personally believe it takes continuous study of the Doctrine, much heartfelt prayer, faithful dedication, serious intent, and consistency of practice to maintain mediums and a group that can successfully conduct spirit sessions that are morally and spiritually instructive and productive. We thank God and the good spirits for their continued protection, support, consolation, moral and spiritual teachings, and constant inspiration! We exist by the grace of God.
Yvonne Limoges
Director,The Spiritist Society of Florida
Director,The Spiritist Society of Florida
| ° SPIRITIST
STUDIES |
A Campaign to
Understand
Skepticism
Ademir Xavier (GEAE editor)
Ademir Xavier (GEAE editor)
Question 5:
But if they are
sciences, where
are your laboratories? What are your methods? How does your science
progress?
Answer:
Laboratories of
the
spiritual reality are everywhere, in all places where we can count on a
medium
to make the interchange between the two worlds. The empirical character
of
Spiritism and Spiritualism is mainly an observational one. In only some
circumstances are well-planned experiments possible.
Therefore, the collection of evidences and the observation of facts
play a
fundamental role in the validation of proposed causes for the
phenomena. Good
mediums are similar to observatories of the spiritual world, they act
like
telescopes of invisible radiations uncovering new worlds very distant
from us,
dimensionally speaking.
Any methods to be followed should be subjected to prescriptions of the
theory.
But the method in itself is not the science, but only a way to arrive
to a
certain conclusion. Moreover, one can not talk about methods in a
general way,
but only in accordance to the object of study. In case of Spiritualist
facts,
one deals with rational (not supernatural) phenomena which follow their
own
rules, therefore requiring special methods. These should not be viewed
as rigid
rules, but only as prescriptions that have a chance to be valid
depending on
the case. Example: one of the aims of Spiritism and Spiritualism is to
investigate the state of disembodied spirits, those who have departed
the
physical life. To know their current psychological states requires a
good
medium (someone able to separate his/her own state from the entity) in
order to
allow good communications. This has been done in the past, but a
thorough scan
of the disembodied population state will require standardization and
efforts of
many future generations. This is surely a topic of future research with
its own
methods. What would be the utility of study of this type? We know that
there is
an incessant interaction between us, incarnate spirits, and the
spiritual
world. Therefore, to study the situation of discarnates is, to a
certain
extent, to know about ourselves and our future state. Just as a man can
plan
his future visit to a distant place, we can know ahead of time what
awaits us
in the future depending on our present acts and mind state. On the
other hand, many
psychological imbalances or mental disorders may have as cause the
action of
disembodied spirits – a natural consequence of their existence – and
therefore,
the understanding of their situation and influence is crucial. In a
futuristic
perspective, spiritist knowledge will play a decisive rule in the
evolution of
humanity from the moral point of view.
The progress of the spiritist sciences closely follows the interest and
dedication of the human being. One cannot forget that, in spite of its
transcendental subject, this is a human endeavor. In our present state
we have
discovered many things, we have established the relationship among
distinct
causes, but we are still in the infancy of the spiritist sciences. Like
any
other science, the progress of the spiritist one will take place
through
sequences of revolutions after the maturation of the main principles in
a
standard science. Today, we have just left the stage of pre-science (to
quote
Thomas Kuhn). However, such state is only valid to those who fully
accept these
new laws, who understand our real state, to those for which the subject
of
“life after death” is beyond any veil of superstition and doubt.
Therefore
today the struggle of spiritists and spiritualists alike, in parallel
with
their research activities, is for respect and understanding. Perhaps
one
thousand years are still ahead of us until full understanding, but
surely we
already have all the ingredients to keep the spiritualist knowledge
alive and
contributing to the evolution of humankind.
GRUPO DE ESTUDOS
AVANÇADOS
ESPÍRITAS
ADVANCED STUDY GROUP OF SPIRITISM
ADVANCED STUDY GROUP OF SPIRITISM
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