Doing good and not evil is our motto

As the reader can see in this edition, reading the text concerning the study of the Revue Spirite of 1862, on 25/5/1862 the French newspaper Abeille Agénaise published an article entitled Spirit Talks, in which Mr. Cazenove de Pradine presented a summary of Spiritism and, in the end, classified it as a perverse doctrine. A reader, Mr Dombre, based in the town of Marmande, wrote to the newspaper criticizing the newspaper, but his letter was not published, on the grounds that the newspaper could not propagate such ideas as they saw as essentially dangerous.

People have every right to express what they think and to like or dislike this or that order of ideas, both in the field of politics, as in philosophy, art or religion.

To attribute the perverse quality to a doctrine, such as Spiritism, it is necessary, however, for the critic to indicate the reasons on which it is based.

The perverse adjective, as we read in one of the best lexicons of the Portuguese language, means: treacherous, malignant, evil, that shows perversion, which has terrible qualities, that it intends to do evil or to harm.

Now this does not apply to the doctrine taught by the higher spirits, and only ignorance of spirit teachings or evil, prejudice and vested interests can lead a person to such a statement.

If Mr. Cazenove had read at least the Introduction of the main spirit work, he would never have made such an accusation, and this is well known to those who attend the Spirit houses and attend the public lectures offered daily to his patrons.

In fact, we read in the mentioned Introduction of The Spirits’ Book:

"The different corporeal existences of the Spirit are always progressive and never regressive; but the speed of his progress depends on his efforts to attain perfection.

The qualities of the soul are those of the Spirit who is incarnate in us; so the good man is the incarnation of a good Spirit, the perverse man of an impure Spirit.

The soul possessed its individuality before incarnating; it retains it after it has separated from the body.

On his return to the world of Spirits, he encounters all those he had met on Earth, and all his previous existences are drawn into his memory, with the remembrance of every good and every evil he has done.

The morality of the higher Spirits is summed up, like that of Christ, in this evangelical maxim: Do unto others what we would have others do to us, that is, to do good, not evil. In this principle man finds a universal rule of proceeding, even for his least actions." (The Spirits' Book, Introduction, VI.)

Where the evil, the perversity, the betrayal in the texts above or in any other that integrates the spirit works?

Wickedness, on the contrary, has already settled in other hearts and other creeds, not in the bosom of Spiritism.

Let's see:

- Who invented and encouraged the Crusades?

- The Inquisition was not the work of Spiritism or Spirits.

- Who committed the criminal barbarities of the ill-fated St. Bartholomew's Night?

- It was not a spirit preacher who stepped and crushed, before the TV cameras, a statuette of Our Lady.

- What religious have set fire to the spirit centres and nuclei maintained by Umbandists and our brothers of Candomblé?

Christians are revealed by their works and, according to Jesus, by fruits we will know them, as he warned in one of his magnificent sermons:

"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you dressed like sheep, but inwardly they are devouring wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do they gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Thus every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and every evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

The good tree cannot bear bad fruit; nor the evil tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them "(Matthew 7: 15-20).