Following renovated requests from our Spiritist brothers in Brussels and Anvers we paid them a short visit this year and we are pleased to say that we bring the most favorable impression about the development of the Doctrine in that country. We found there a larger than expected number of sincere, devoted and enlightened followers. The warm welcome received in both cities is a memory that will never fade away and we take the moments spent there into the account of the most satisfactory to us. Since we cannot send our thanks to each one in particular we ask for their kindness and accepting them collectively here.
On returning to Paris we found a message from the members of the Spiritist Society of Brussels that touched us profoundly. We will keep and treasure it as a testimony of their sympathy but we count on their understanding for the reasons that preclude us from publishing it in the Spiritist Review. There is, however, a passage in that message that we found to be our duty to bring to the attention of our readers because that fact that does reveal tells us more than lengthy theses about the way certain persons understand Spiritism. Here it is: “To celebrate you trip to Belgium our group decided to sponsor a bed at the St. Josse Tennoode Children’s facility.”
Nothing could be more flattering to us than that kind of testimony. By considering us worth of the foundation of a charitable work in memory of our visitation is a greater demonstration of esteem than the glossiest receptions that can flatter self-love and benefit nobody, not leaving any useful trace.
Anvers is distinguished by a larger number of followers and groups. But there, like in Brussels, and as a matter of fact everywhere, those that attend the kind of official and regulated gatherings are minority. The social relationships and the opinions issued in the conversations demonstrate that the sympathy towards the Doctrine goes beyond the groups per se. If on one hand not everyone is Spiritist there on the other there is no systematic opposition. People talk about it as a very natural thing and do not laugh about it. Since the followers are engaged in high trade our arrival was the novelty in the stock market and was the motive of conversation, with no more importance than the arrival of a cargo ship. Several groups are formed by a limited number of members and are named by a special and characteristic title; hence one is called Fraternity, the other Love and Charity, etc. We must add that such titles are not prosaic denominations to them but flagships that they endure to justify. The group Love and Charity for example has the special objective of material charity not diminishing the importance of the instructions of the Spirits that in a certain ways constitute a parallel activity. Their organization is very simple and leads to excellent results. One of the members has the title “alms giver” that corresponds perfectly well to his activity of delivering help to the homes and the Spirits frequently indicate names and addresses of persons in need. The expression “alms giver” then returned to its primitive significance from which it had moved away. This group has an exceptional medium of typtology that we consider worth of a special article.
We only want to indicate here the excellent elements that allow us to have great expectations with respect to Spiritism in that country where it sowed roots not long ago but that does not mean that there as elsewhere there wasn’t unavoidable perplexities and mistakes when it comes to the establishment of a new idea. It is impossible that at the start of a new Doctrine, in particular with the importance of Spiritism, all of those that declare allegiance understand its reach, seriousness and consequences. One must then expect deviations of route by persons that only see the surface and feeds personal ambitions, for those to whom it is more a means than a truthful belief, not to mention the persons that wear all kinds of masks to sneak in to serve the interest of adversaries and in the same way that the outfit does not make the monk the name of Spiritist does not make the true Spiritist. Sooner or later these frustrated Spiritists whose pride is always there will cause painful disruptions and create obstacles that are overcome with perseverance and firmness.
The homogeneity, the communion of ideas and feelings are the necessary conditions to the stability and vitality of the Spiritist groups as they are to any other group. All efforts must be driven towards that and the smaller the groups the easier it is to attain it. In the large gatherings it is difficult to avoid the influence of outsiders that sooner or later will sow separation; in the small groups in which everybody knows and appreciates one another it is like family, there is more reverence and the intrusion of the ill-minded is more difficult. The diversity of elements that constitute the large gatherings therefore makes them more vulnerable to the quiet attack of the adversaries.
In a given city it would be better to have a hundred groups of ten to twenty followers in which none wants the supremacy than one unique group that congregates everybody. Such partition will in no way harm the unity of principles taking into account that the flag is the same and all march towards the same objective. This must have been perfectly understood by our brothers from Anvers and Brussels. In short our trip to Brussels was fertile in teachings and in the interest of Spiritism by the documents that we collected and that we will make public to the benefit of everybody when the time is right.
Let us not forget one of the most honorable mentions to the Spiritist group of Douai that we visited in passing and in particular the testimony of gratitude by their warm reception to us. It is a familiar Spiritist group where the Evangelical Spiritist Doctrine is practice in its whole purity. They enjoy the most perfect harmony, reciprocal benevolence, charity of thoughts, words and actions; they breathe in an atmosphere of patriarchal fraternity, exempt of harmful fluids, in which the good Spirits must feel as pleased as incarnate persons do. The communications there are also a reflex of that sympathetic environment. The fact that they have never been disturbed by dissensions and difficulties that others had to endure is due to their homogeneity and to the scrupulous care taken in the admissions. All of those that attend that group are heartful Spiritists and none tries to have their personality prevailing. The mediums there are relatively in a large number; all of them consider themselves simple instruments of the Providence; they do not have pride or person pretensions and without feeling hurt humbly submit themselves to the analysis of the communications that they receive, ready to have them destroyed if considered unfit.
A charming poem was received in our intention after our departure. We thank the Spirit that dictated it and to the interpreter. We keep it as precious memory but these are the kind of documents that we cannot publish and that we only accept as a means of encouragement.
We are pleased to say that this group is not the only one in such favorable conditions and we were able to attest that the truly serious gatherings where everyone tries to better oneself, from which curiosity was banned, the only ones that diverse the qualification of Spiritists, these multiply daily. They offer on a lesser or greater scale a pale image of what there could become of society when a well understood and generalized Spiritism forms the bases of mutual relationships. Then nobody will have anything to fear from anyone. Charity will make peace and justice reign among them. Such is the result of the transformation that takes place and whose effects the future generation will begin to feel.
