Spiritist and Christian AgreementThe letter below was addressed to the Society of Spiritist Studies by Dr.
de Grand-Boulogne, former Vice Consul of France.
“Dear Mr. President,
With the vivid intent of taking part into the Parisian Society
of Spiritist Studies, but forced to leave France very soon, I request
the honor of being accepted as a corresponding member. I
have the advantage of knowing you in person and I don’t need to
tell you about the interest and sympathy with which I follow the
works of the Society. I read your books, as well as those by Baron
de Guldenstubbe, and consequently I know the fundamental
points of Spiritism whose principles I sincerely adopt, as you have
taught them. Since I attest here my strong will to live and die as a
Christian, this declaration drives me to provide you with my profession
of faith and perhaps you shall see with some interest, how
my religious faith naturally welcomes the principles of Spiritism.
That is how, in my opinion, the two are aligned:
1. God: creator of all things;
2. Objective and aim of all creatures: contribute to the universal
harmony;
3. Three main kingdoms in the created universe: the material or
inert, the organic or vital and the intellectual or moral;
4. Every creature is submitted to laws;
5. The creatures of the two first kingdoms obey submissively,
and the harmony is never perturbed by them;
6. As the two first ones, the third is also submitted to the laws
but enjoys the singular privilege of going around them and
the terrible capacity of disobeying God: it is what forms the
free-will; the human being belongs simultaneously to the
three kingdoms: he is an incarnated spirit.
7. The laws that govern the moral world are formulated in the
Ten Commandments, but are summarized by this remarkable
precept of Jesus: Love God above all and your neighbor
as yourself.
8. Every breach of the law constitutes a disruption of the universal
harmony. Well, God does not allow such disruption to
persist and the order must be inexorably reestablished.
9. There is a law for repairing any disorder of the moral world,
and the law is entirely contained in this word: atonement.
10. Atonement happens as follows: 1st – true repentance and acts
of virtue; 2nd – regret and trials; 3rd – prayers and the trials
of the righteous person, together with the regret of the guilty
one.
11. The prayers and trials of the righteous, although efficiently
supporting the universal harmony, these are not sufficient to
the absolute atonement of the faults. God demands the sinner’s
regret but together with that regret the prayer and penitence
in favor of the guilty required by the eternal justice, and
the crime is pardoned.
12. The life and death of Jesus turns that loving truth evident.
13. Without free-will there is no sin but there isn’t any virtue
either.
14. What is virtue? Courage in the good.
15. The most beautiful thing in the world is not the spectacle of a
great soul fighting hardship, as the philosopher said; it is the
perpetual effort of a soul evolving in the good path, elevating
in virtue up to the Creator.
16. What is the most beautiful of all virtues? Charity.
17. What is charity? It is the special attribute of the soul that, in
its fervent aspirations towards the good, forgets oneself and
struggles to help others to achieve happiness.
18. Knowledge is far below charity; it elevates us on the spiritual
scale, but does not contribute to reestablishing the universal
order perturbed by evil. Knowledge explains nothing, repairs
nothing, and does not influence God’s justice. Charity, on
the contrary, expiates and appeases. Knowledge is a quality;
charity is a virtue.
19. What was God’s intent when creating incarnation? Provide
part of the spiritual world with a situation without which
there would not exist any of the virtues that give us so much
respect and admiration. In fact, there is no charity without
suffering; no courage without danger; no devotion without
disgrace; no stoicism without oppression; no patience without
rage, etc. Well then, without the physical world all those evils
would disappear and with them the virtues.
As people somewhat detached from the material links, there
is harmony in this pool of good and evil, a greatness of an order
more elevated than the harmony and greatness of the exclusively
material world. This answers in a few words the raised objections
that are based on the incompatibility between evil and God’s
justice.
We would have to write volumes of books to develop all these
propositions. However, the objective of this communication is
not to offer the Society with a philosophical and religious thesis. I
just wanted to formulate a few Christian truths in harmony with Spiritism. From my point of view these truths are the fundamental
basis of religion and far from weakening, they become stronger
with the spiritist revelations. I don’t hesitate to make a criticism
either; that the priests, blindfolded by the devil-phobia, refuse
to learn and condemn without examination. If the Christians
opened their ears to the revelations of the spirits, everything that
is the cause of uneasiness to our minds or revolting to our hearts
in the religious teachings would suddenly disappear. Religion
would broaden the circle of its dogmas, without any changes in
the essence, and the flashes of the new truths would console and
illuminate the soul. If it is true as said by father Ventura, that
the philosophical and religious doctrines end up inexorably translated
by the ordinary actions of life, it is obvious that a nation
initiated in Spiritism would become the most admirable and the
happiest of all nations. It could be said that a truly Christian society
would be perfectly happy. I agree. However, religious teaching
takes place both by terror and love and human beings, dominated
by their passions and desperate to overcome the dogmas
that threaten them, will be so numerous that the group of devout
Christians will always be a tiny minority. There are Christians in
large number but the true Christians are rare.
That is not the case with the spiritist teachings. Although its
morals are confused with that of Christianity and threatening
words are also pronounced, Spiritism is so rich in treasures of
consolation. It is at the same time so logical and so practical; it
casts a vivid light upon our destiny; it deviates the obscurities that
trouble our logic and perplexities that placate our hearts, in truth
it seems impossible that a sincere Spiritist neglects a single day of
work in progressing and thus contributes to restore the troubled
harmony by the overflowing of selfish and greedy passions.
We can therefore say that by spreading the truths we have
the joy of knowing we are working for the benefit of humanity
and our work will be blessed by God. The people will be happy when the number of those who are righteous and practice charity
outweighs those who are selfish and evil. I believe in my soul and
conscience that Spiritism, based on Christianity, is called upon to
operate that revolution. Imbued with these feelings and willing
to contribute to the happiness of my fellow human beings, to the
limit of my own strength, while I also struggle to become better,
I ask, Mr. President, to be a part of your, Society.”
Yours sincerely, etc.
De Grand-Boulogne, doctor in Medicine,
former Vice Consul of France.
OBSERVATION: This letter does not require any comments and every
one can appreciate the high level of principles formulated in a manner so
profound and at the same time in such a clear and simple way. These are
the principles of true Spiritism; these principles that certain people dare
to expose to ridicule since they pretend to have the privilege of reason
and common sense, as they don’t know if they have a soul and don’t see a
difference between their future and that of a machine. We shall add only
one observation: Once Spiritism is well understood, it is the protection of
truly religious ideas that fade away; that contributing to the betterment
of the individual, it will bring the betterment of the masses, and that the
time is not far when human beings will understand that in this Doctrine
they will find the most fecund element of order, wellbeing and prosperity
of all people. And all that for a very simple reason: Spiritism kills the
materialism, which in turn feeds and develops egotism, the eternal source
of social struggles, giving human beings a reason for their existence. A
society where all members are driven by the love for their fellow human
beings, which has the word charity written at the top of all codes, that
society will be happy and soon it will see all signs of hatred and disagreement
disappear. Spiritism can realize such a prodigy and it will do that,
despite all those who still attack it, because the aggressors will pass but
Spiritism will stay.
