THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM

Allan Kardec

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22. When speaking of a bad person who has escaped some danger, it is customary to say that if he had been a good man he would have died. Well then, in saying this you are speaking the truth, because it frequently comes to pass that God bestows a longer trial on a Spirit who is only commencing his path to progress than He would give a good Spirit who, by merit of his worthiness, receives the blessing of the shortest possible period of atonement. Consequently, whenever you use that aphorism you unsuspectingly commit a blasphemy.

If a good man dies, having a neighbour who is considered to be bad, it is soon remarked that it would have been better if the neighbour had died instead. By saying this you are expressing something quite atrocious, because the one who departed had completed his or her tasks and the other, who is left, has perhaps not even begun. Why should you wish the bad person to be denied the necessary time to complete their tasks, while condemning the good person to remain an unnecessary prisoner? What would you say if, after having served a prison sentence, the convict were to be kept in prison, when another person, who had no right, was set at liberty? It must be understood that true liberty for a Spirit is the breaking of the ties which keep it captive within a physical body, and that while upon Earth it is really a prisoner.

Accustom yourselves then not to censure the things you do not understand, and more especially to believe that God is just in all things, and that on many occasions what appears to be an evil is really a blessing. Due to the fact that your faculties are so limited, it is not possible to have a clear vision of the whole, nor can it be felt by your obtuse senses. However, if you strive to reach beyond your limited sphere by means of thought, you will find the importance of all material things diminishes, according to the manner in which you are able to lift up your thoughts. In this way life presents itself as a mere incident in the infinite course of spiritual existence, which is the only true life. - FÉNELON (Sens, 1861).

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