Love is the divine essence, and from beginning to end you possess in the depths of your soul the flame of that sacred fire. It is a fact that you have been able to prove over and over again; the vilest individual, the most abject, the most criminal, holds for another person or some object a living and ardent affection impervious to anything that could diminish it, often reaching sublime proportions.

I said for “another person or some object,” because amongst you there are individuals who spend the treasures of the abundant love in their hearts on animals, plants and even physical objects: misanthropes of sorts, who complain about humankind in general and resist the natural inclinations of their soul as they search outside themselves for affection and sympathy. They reduce the law of love to the level of instinct. But no matter what they do, they will be unable to repress the living seed that God planted in their hearts at their creation. This seed develops and grows with morality and intelligence, and although restrained by selfishness, it is the source of the holy and kind virtues which generate sincere and lasting affections, and which help you to travel the rugged and arid course of human existence.

There  are some to  whom the  trial of reincarnation is repugnant because it implies that others take part in the affectionate relationships of which they are jealous. Poor brothers and sisters! It is your affection that has made you selfish; your love is confined to a closed circle of family and friends, and nobody else matters to you. Well! In order to practice the law of love as God intended it, you must progressively arrive at loving all your brothers and sisters indiscriminately.  The task will be long and difficult, but it shall be accomplished. God wills it, and the law of love is the first and most important precept of your new doctrine because it is what will someday kill selfishness under any form in which it may appear, for besides personal selfishness, there is also family, caste and national selfishness. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourselves.” Now what is the extent of one’s  neighbor? Family, sect, nation? No. It is the whole of humankind. On more highly evolved worlds, it is the mutual love that harmonizes and guides the advanced spirits who inhabit them, and your planet, destined for impending progress due to its social transformation, will see its inhabitants practice this sublime law, the reflection of the Divinity.

The effects of the law of love are the moral betterment of the human race and happiness during earthly life. The most rebellious and the meanest shall reform themselves when they see the benefits produced by practicing this: Do not do unto others what you would not want them to do unto you; on the contrary, do unto them all the good that is within your ability.

Do not believe in the sterility and hardness of the human heart; in spite of itself, it yields to true love. Love is a magnet that it cannot resist, and contact with love enlivens and fertilizes the seeds of the virtue that lies latent within it. As a dwelling place of trial and exile, the earth will then be purified by that sacred fire, and will see the practice of charity, humility, patience, devotion, self- denial, resignation and sacrifice – all virtues that are the offspring of love. So, do not tire of hearing the words of John the Evangelist. You know that when infirmity and old age suspended  the course of his preaching, he did nothing but repeat these sweet words: “My little children, love one another.”

Dear brothers and sisters, take advantage of these lessons. Their practice is difficult, but the soul will derive immense good from them. Believe me; put forth the sublime effort that I ask of you: “Love one another,” and you will see earth very soon transformed and made into an Elysium, where the souls of the righteous will go to enjoy repose.

Fenelon (Bordeaux, 1861)