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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