The Revue
Spirite of
1863
Part 16 - Final
We end in this
issue the study
of the Revue
Spirite
corresponding to
the year of
1863. The
condensed text
of the mentioned
volume will
hereby be
presented in
sixteen parts,
based on the
translation of
Julio Abreu
Filho and
published by
EDICEL.
Issues for discussion
A. If Elijah and John the Baptist are the same Spirit,
with which body will it stay on the day of the Last
Judgment?
B. Why did Kardec, who rejected the phenomenon of
possession, change his mind?
C. What to do regarding the attacks of the disincarnated
opponents?
Text for reading
152. Still speaking about the Pastoral Letter published
by the Bishop of Algiers, Kardec makes the following
considerations: I) Spiritism must be accepted freely,
attracting people by the force of its reasoning, without
ever violating consciences. II) In all his refutations,
he never targeted individuals, because personal issues
die with people. III) Spiritism sees things from a
higher level; it refers to the questions of principles
that survive individuals. IV) The clergy is not
unanimous in the reproach to Spiritism. Concerning the
position of the clergy, Kardec narrates two rather
curious facts involving two priests favoring Spiritist
ideas. (Pages
360 to 363)
153. Reaffirming that the pastoral of the Bishop of
Algiers had not succeeded in stopping the impulse of
Spiritism in that region, Kardec transcribes in the Revue two
letters which prove his information that virulent
sermons contribute more than is thought for the
expansion of the Spiritist movement and the increase of
the number of its supporters. (Pages
364 to 366)
154. If Elijah and John the Baptist are the same Spirit,
with what body will it stand on the day of the Last
Judgment, to present itself, according to the Church,
before Jesus Christ? Kardec answers this question, which
had been made to a confrere by the priest of a certain
city. After transcribing and commenting on the Gospel
passage in which the Sadducees made a curious question
about the woman who had had seven spouses, the Encoder
clarifies that the body used by the Spirits after their
disincarnating is the spiritual body to which Paul
refers in his 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, not the
carnal body, subject to decay and disappearance. (Pages
366 to 369)
155. Paul of Tarsus - the St. Paul of Catholic
Christians - is considered by François-Nicolas
Madeleine, the precursor of Spiritism. "As the
Spiritists, and before the Spiritists," says Madeleine,
"he was the first to proclaim this maxim which is a
glory: there is no salvation beyond Charity!" In
addition, Paul describes in his letter to the
Corinthians the principal mediumistic faculties, which
he calls the blessed gifts of the Holy Spirit. Kardec
adds to the communication the teachings given by the
Apostle of the Gentiles concerning the spiritual body -
the fluidic body, or perispirit, which covers the soul,
as Spiritism teaches us. (Pages 370 to 372)
156. A case of possession - that of Miss Julia - is
examined by Kardec, who avails himself of the
opportunity to rectify his assertion, concerning
possession, which is contained in his earlier works. "We
have said," said the Encoder, "that there were no
possessions in the common sense of the word, but they
were subdued. We return to this absolute assertion,
because it has now been shown that there can be a true
possession, that is, substitution, even partial, of a
wandering Spirit with an incarnate one". (Page 373)
157. Kardec divides the phases of development of
Spiritism into six periods, namely: 1) that of
curiosity, characterized by the rotating tables; 2) the
philosophical, marked by the publication of The Book
of Spirits; 3) that of the struggle, of which the
Act of Faith of Barcelona was, in a way, the signal; 4)
the religious; 5) the intermediate, natural consequence
of the precedent and that will later receive its
characteristic denomination; and 6) that of social
regeneration, which will open the twentieth-century era.
Kardec was very optimistic in this and other
predictions, such as the one in which he predicted that
the number of Spiritists would exceed the number of
Catholics in France in a few years, which is why he
later modified the hereby classification and its order.(Pages
377 to 379)
158. In the section "Instructions of the Spirits",
Erastus, who was in this Earth a disciple of Paul of
Tarsus, warns the Spiritists about the difficulties they
should face - snares, deceit, torture, slander, in
defense of Spiritist ideals. "The hour is grave and
solemn," says Erastus; then remove all the petty
questions and all the vain pretensions of pre-eminence
and self-love; occupy yourselves with the great
interests which are in your hands, and account for what
the Lord will ask you for” (Pages 379 and 380).
159. Erastus also signs a message called "The
Conflicts," in which he affirms that there is at that
moment a resurgence of obsessive phenomena, the result
of the struggle that must inevitably sustain the new
ideas. "From all sides," says Erasto", mediums come up
with supposed missions, called, they say, to take up the
banner of Spiritism and plant it on the ruins of the old
world, as if we were to destroy, we who came to build”.
"Almost all mediums, at their beginning, are subjected
to this perilous temptation”, says Erastus. (Pages
381 to 383)
160. In view of the situation he described, Erasto
clarifies that any construction that does not rest on
the solid foundation of truth will fall, for truth alone
can defy time and triumph over all utopias. Spiritists
should be aware, therefore, not only of the attacks of
the living adversaries, but also of the even more
dangerous maneuvers of the disincarnated opponents.
"Strengthen yourselves, therefore, in sound studies and
above all by the practice of love and charity, and be
renewed in prayer. God always enlightens those who
consecrate themselves to the propagation of truth, when
they are in good faith and devoid of all personal
ambition”, said the enlightened spiritual Instructor,
adding: "Never judge a mediumistic communication by the
name that signs it, but only by its intrinsic content". (Pages
383 and 386)
161. Closing the number of December and the volume of
the year 1863, the Revue transcribes two
communications. In the first, Lazarus talks about duty,
reminding that if duty is painful in its sacrifices,
evil is bitter in its results. These almost identical
pains, however, have very different conclusions: one is
salutary, like the poisons that restore health; the
other is harmful, like the feasts that ruin the body. In
the second communication, Lamennais, referring to man’s
food, says that one can be a good Christian and a good
Spiritist and eat to taste, as long as it is reasonable.
The great sages were fed only on fruits and roots.
Strong nature individuals that can live like the hermits
do well to adopt this regime, for the forgetting of the
flesh leads more easily to meditation and prayer; but to
live like this, it is necessary to be of a more
spiritual nature, and this is impossible considering the
earthly conditions. (Pages 386 to 388)
Answers to the proposed issues
A. If Elijah and John the Baptist are the same Spirit,
with which body will it stay on the day of the Last
Judgment?
Kardec answered this question, proposed to a confrere by
the priest of a certain city, saying that the body used
by the Spirits after their disincarnating is the
spiritual body, to which Paul refers in his 1st Epistle
to the Corinthians, and not the carnal body, subject to
decomposition and disappearance. (The Revue Spirite of
1863, pages 366 to 369).
B. Why did Kardec, who rejected the phenomenon of
possession, change his mind?
What led him to change his mind about the subject was
the case of Miss Julia's possession, which he had
examined in the Revue. "We have said," said the
Encoder, "that there were no possessions in the common
sense of the word, but they were subdued. We return to
this absolute assertion, because it has now been
demonstrated that there can be a true possession, that
is, the substitution, even partial, of a wandering
Spirit with an incarnate one" (Ibid, page 373).
C. What to do regarding the attacks of the disincarnated
opponents?
According to Erastus, Spiritists must be alert not only
to the attacks of living adversaries, but also to the
even more dangerous maneuvers of the disincarnated
opponents. "Strengthen yourselves, therefore, in sound
studies and above all by the practice of love and
charity, and be renewed in prayer. God always enlightens
those who consecrate themselves to the propagation of
truth, when they are in good faith and devoid of all
personal ambition”, said the enlightened Instructor.
"Never judge a mediumistic communication by the name
that signs it, but only by its intrinsic content" (Ibid,
pages 383 to 386).
Translation:
Eleni Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br
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