Making One’s Own Suffering Profitable for Others

Do  not those who resignedly  accept  their suffering  by submitting to God’s will with an eye on their future  happiness work only for themselves, and can they render their suffering profitable for others?

This suffering might be materially and morally beneficial to someone else: materially, if through labor the privations and sacrifices they impose on themselves contribute to the material welfare of their neighbor; morally, by the example they offer of their submission to God’s will. This example of the power of the Spiritist faith can encourage unfortunate people to resignation, and save them from despair and its disastrous consequences for the future.

St. Louis (Paris, 1860)