The Mission of Spiritists

Do you not already hear the rumbling of the tempest that must do away with the old world and engulf in nothingness the sum of earth’s iniquities?  Ah! Bless the Lord, you who have put your faith in his sovereign justice, and who, as new apostles of the belief revealed by prophetic voices On High, go forth and preach the new tenet of reincarnation  and of the elevation of spirits, according to whether they fulfilled their missions well or badly and how they bore their earthly trials.

Fear not! Tongues of fire are upon your heads. Oh! True followers of Spiritism, you are the chosen ones of God! Go and preach the Divine Word. The time has come in which you must sacrifice your habits, labors and futile concerns to its propagation. Go forth and proclaim it. Spirits from On High are with you. Of course, you will speak to individuals who will not want to listen to the voice of God, for that voice incessantly calls them to selflessness. You will proclaim disinterestedness to  the greedy, abstinence to  the dissolute, and kindness to domestic tyrants as well as to despots: wasted words, I know; but what does it matter! You must water with your sweat the ground that you must sow, for it will not produce a crop except through repeated efforts of the evangelical hoe and plow. Go forth and proclaim!

Yes, all you men and women of good faith, who are aware of how small you are as you look at other worlds scattered throughout the infinite, set out on a crusade against injustice and iniquity. Go forth and reverse this worship of the golden calf, each day more and more encroaching. Go; God will guide you! Simple and unlearned men and women, your tongues will be loosened and you will speak as no other orator speaks. Go forth and proclaim, and attentive peoples will joyfully take in your words of consolation, fraternity, hope and peace.

What do the traps that will be set for you along your way matter! Only wolves fall into traps for wolves, because the shepherd knows how to defend his sheep against such murderous butchers.

Go forth, men and women who are great before God, and who, more blessed than St. Thomas, believe without asking to see, and accept the fact of mediumship even when you have never been successful in obtaining it yourselves. Go forth; the Spirit of God is leading you.

Press onward, magnificent phalanx of faith! And the great battalions of disbelievers will vanish before you like the morning mist at the first rays of the rising sun.

Faith  is the  virtue that  moves mountains,  Jesus said. However, impurity and all its vices lie heavier than the heaviest mountains  on  the  heart  of  humankind.  So, go  forth  with courage in order to move this mountain of iniquity, which future generations will know about only through legend, just as you yourselves know only very imperfectly about the period of time prior to pagan civilization.

Yes,  moral and philosophical upheavals will occur at all points on the globe. The time approaches when the divine light will be shed over the two worlds.

Go forth, then, and take the Divine Word: to the great ones of the world, who will scorn it; to the learned, who will demand proof; to the small and simple, who will accept it, because it is especially among the martyrs of labor – that earthly expiation – that you will find zeal and faith. Go forth; with canticles of thanksgiving and songs of praise to God, they will receive the holy consolation you bring them, and they will bow their heads in thanks for their portion of earthly afflictions.

May your phalanx be armed with resolution and courage! Get to work! The plow is ready; the soil awaits you; now you must work!

Go forth and give thanks to God for the glorious task he has entrusted to you, but bear in mind that among those called to Spiritism, many have gone astray. So watch your course and follow the way of the truth.

Question: If many of those called to Spiritism have gone astray, by what signs do we recognize those who are on the righteous path?

Answer: You will recognize them by the principles of true charity that they profess and practice. You will recognize them by the number of afflicted to whom they take consolation. You will recognize them by their love for their neighbor, their selflessness and their personal disinterestedness.  You  will recognize them, finally, by the triumph  of their principles, for God  wills the triumph of his law. Those who obey his laws are the elect, and he will give them victory. However, he will crush those who falsify the spirit of that law and who make it a stepping stone for satisfying their vanity and ambition.

Erastus, The Medium’s Guardian Angel (Paris, 1863)