Questions
A. Do the spirits play and active role in the repercussions of all the turmoil that disturbs the world of incarnates?
B. What will be the cornerstone of the new social order?
C. Will men shake hands with one another on earth on day?
Text for reading
1164. Those who live long enough to stand on both sides of the new phase will think that a new world has arisen from the ruins of the old. The character, customs and usages – everything has changed. Actually, what has occurred is that new humans – or rather, regenerated ones – have appeared. The ideas of the generation that has passed away have given way to the new ideas of the generation that has arisen. Having reached adulthood, humankind will have new needs and greater and higher aspirations. It will understand the emptiness of the ideas in which it had been cradled and the inability of its institutions to bring happiness; it will no longer find in the current state of affairs the true satisfaction to which it feels it has been called. Consequently, it will rid itself of its childish ways, and driven by an irresistible force, will launch itself toward unknown shores in search of new, less limited horizons.
1165. It is at one of these periods of transformation, or if you prefer, of moral growth, that humankind has arrived. From adolescence it has reached adulthood. The past is no longer sufficient for its new aspirations, its new necessities. It can no longer be led by the same means. It can no longer treat itself with illusions and deceptions. Its mature reason requires more substantial nourishment. The present is too ephemeral; it feels that its destiny is much vaster and that corporeal life is too restrictive to contain it completely. That is why its gaze probes both the past and the future in order to discover the mystery of its existence and to draw from it a sure consolation.
1166. It is in the moment in which humankind finds itself too confined within its material sphere – where intellectual life overflows and where the sentiment of spirituality blooms – that the individuals who call themselves philosophers hope to fill the vacuum with doctrines of nihilism and materialism! A strange aberration! These same individuals claim to be driving humankind forward, yet they make every effort to contain it in the narrow circle of matter, from which it aspires to escape. They bar it from the aspect of infinite life, and pointing at the grave, tell it: Nec plus ultra!
1167. Those who have meditated on Spiritism and its consequences, and have not restricted it to the sphere of producing a few phenomena, understand that it opens up a new pathway to humankind and discloses the horizons of the infinite. By initiating them into the mysteries of the invisible world, it shows them its true role in creation, a role that is continually active both in the spirit state and in the corporeal. Humans no longer walk in blindness: they know where they have come from, where they are going and why they are on the earth. The future shows itself to them as it really is, freed of the prejudices of ignorance and superstition; it is no longer a vague hope: it is a tangible truth as certain as day follows night.
1168. They know that their being is not limited to a few moments of an ephemeral existence; that the life of the spirit is not interrupted by death; that they have lived before and will live again, and that from all they acquire in perfection through labor, nothing is lost. In their previous lives they find the reason for what they are today, and from what they make of themselves today, they can deduce what they will be tomorrow.
1169. According to the idea that individual activity and cooperation in the overall work of civilization are limited to the present life, that a person was nothing before and will be nothing afterward, what does the ultimate progress of humankind matter to people? What does it matter that in the future peoples will be better-governed, happier, more enlightened and kinder toward one another? Since they will not be able to take advantage of it, is not such progress lost to them? What good does it do them to labor for those who will come after them if they will never know them, if they are new individuals, who soon thereafter will go back into nothingness themselves?
1170. Under the domain of the denial that the individual has a future, everything necessarily shrinks to the petty proportions of the moment and the personality. On the other hand, however, what breadth the certainty that the spiritual being will live forever gives to human thought! What could be more rational, more grandiose, more worthy of the Creator than the law according to which the spirit life and the corporeal life are only two modes of existence that alternate for the fulfillment of progress! What could be more just and more consoling than the idea of the same individuals progressing incessantly, first by being born through generations on the same world, and then on world after world, without dissolution of continuity, until they reach perfection!
1171. Then, all their actions have a purpose, for while they are working for the whole, they are working for themselves and for each other in a way that neither individual nor general progress is ever fruitless. It benefits future generations and individuals, who are none other than past generations and individuals who have now arrived at a higher degree of advancement.
1172. Fraternity must be the cornerstone of the new social order; however, there can be no true, solid and effective fraternity unless it rests upon an unshakable foundation; that foundation is faith; not faith in these or those particular dogmas, which change with the times and peoples who cast stones at one another – because by anathematizing one another, they feed hostility – but faith in the fundamental principles that everyone can accept: God, the soul, the future, THE ONGOING PROGRESS OF INDIVIDUALS AND THE PERPETUITY OF RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THEM.
1173. When all people are convinced that God is the same for all; that this supremely just and good God cannot want anything unjust; that evil comes from humans and not from God, then they will regard one another as children of the same Father and will shake hands with one another. This is the faith that Spiritism provides, and which will be from hereon out the pivot around which humankind will move, whatever the mode of worship and the particular creed may be.
1174. The intellectual progress accomplished so far in vast proportions is a huge step and has marked the first phase of humankind; by itself, however, it has been powerless to regenerate it. As long as humans are dominated by pride and selfishness, they will use their intelligence and knowledge to satisfy their passions and personal interests, which is why they apply themselves to perfecting ways of harming and destroying their neighbor.
1175. Only moral progress can assure people of happiness on the earth by restraining evil passions. It alone can enable harmony, peace and fraternity to reign. Moral progress will break down the barriers that separate peoples, and will bring down class prejudices and silence the antagonism between sects, teaching people to regard one another as brothers and sisters who are called to mutually help one another and not live at one another’s expense.
1176. Moreover, it is moral progress, aided by the progress of intelligence, that will join people together in one and the same belief founded on inarguable eternal truths, and, consequently, acceptable to all. Unity of belief will be the most powerful bond, the solidest foundation of universal fraternity, which has been shattered throughout history by the religious hostilities that have divided peoples and families, making them see dissidents as enemies to be avoided, fought against and exterminated, instead of brothers and sisters to be loved.
1177. Such a state of affairs presupposes a radical change in the sentiment of the masses, a generalized progress that cannot be accomplished except by quitting the circle of the narrow and petty ideas that foster selfishness.
1178. At different periods in time, elite individuals sought to drive humankind along that path, but humankind, still quite young, remained deaf, and their teachings became the good seed that fell on the rocky soil. Today, humankind is mature enough to set its sights higher than it ever has in order to assimilate broader ideas and to comprehend what it did not comprehend before.
1179. The generation that disappears will take its errors and prejudices with it; the generation that emerges, immersed in a purer source and imbued with more sound ideas, will imprint on the world an ascendant movement in the sense of moral progress, which will signal the new phase for humankind. This phase is already being revealed by unmistakable signs, by attempts at useful reforms and by great and generous ideas that have been brought to light and which have begun to find an echo.
1180 Thus it is that we have seen the founding of a great number of protective, civilizing and liberating institutions under the impetus and by the initiative of individuals obviously predestined for the work of regeneration; that penal laws are imbued every day with a more humane sentiment. Race prejudices are weakening and peoples have begun to regard themselves as members of a great family, and through the uniformity and ease of the means of transaction, they are overcoming the barriers that have separated them. From all parts of the world they are coming together in universal assemblies for the peaceful exchange of thoughts.
1181. However, these reforms lack a foundation in order to be developed, completed and consolidated, a more generalized moral predisposition to yield good results and become accepted by the masses. This is nothing more than a characteristic sign of the times, the prelude to what will be accomplished on a much larger scale as the ground becomes more favorable.
1182. Another sign no less characteristic of the period into which we are entering is the obvious reaction occurring in the sense of spiritualistic ideas; an instinctive rejection is manifesting against materialistic ideas. The spirit of disbelief, which seized both the ignorant and enlightened masses and led them to reject, along with the form, the very foundation of every belief, seems to have been a deep sleep, the awakening from which stirs the need to breathe a more vivifying air. And where emptiness is felt, people unconsciously seek something, a point of support, a hope.
1183. Believing that most people are imbued with such sentiments, one can easily imagine the changes that would occur in social relations: charity, fraternity and benevolence toward all and tolerance for all beliefs will be their motto. This is the objective toward which humankind is obviously headed, the object of its aspirations and desires, without it being fully aware of the means of fulfilling them.
1184. It experiments and feels around, but is hampered by active resistance or the strength of inertia caused by prejudices and stationary beliefs that are stubbornly resistant to progress. Such are the obstacles that must be overcome, and this will be the task of the new generation. By following the present course of things, one can see that everything seems predestined to open the way for it. The new generation will hold the dual power of numbers and ideas, in addition to the experience of the past.
Answer Key
A. Do the spirits play and active role in the repercussions of all the turmoil that disturbs the world of incarnates?
Yes. One thing that might seem strange to you, but which nevertheless is strictly true, is that the spirit world that surrounds you feels the repercussions of all the turmoil that disturbs the world of incarnates: I would even say that it plays an active role. This should come as no surprise to those who know that spirits make up part of humanity; that they come from humankind and must return to it. You can be sure, therefore, that when a social revolution occurs on the earth, it also impacts the invisible world; all the good and evil passions become overexcited there just as they do amongst you. An unspoken turbulence reigns among the spirits who still make up part of your world, and who await the time to return to it. (Genesis, Ch. XVIII, items 9 and 10)
B. What will be the cornerstone of the new social order?
Fraternity must be the cornerstone of the new social order; however, there can be no true, solid and effective fraternity unless it rests upon an unshakable foundation; that foundation is faith; not faith in these or those particular dogmas, which change with the times and peoples who cast stones at one another – because by anathematizing one another, they feed hostility – but faith in the fundamental principles that everyone can accept: God, the soul, the future, THE ONGOING PROGRESS OF INDIVIDUALS AND THE PERPETUITY OF RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THEM. (Genesis, Ch. XVIII, items 17 to 19)
C. Will men shake hands with one another on earth on day?
Yes. When all people are convinced that God is the same for all; that this supremely just and good God cannot want anything unjust; that evil comes from humans and not from God, then they will regard one another as children of the same Father and will shake hands with one another. (Genesis, Ch. XVIII, items 17 to 19)
