THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM

Allan Kardec

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12. Mankind, why do you complain about the calamities which you yourselves have heaped upon your heads? You despise the saintly and divine morality of Christ, so do not be surprised that the cup of iniquity should overflow on all sides.

Trouble has become generalised. Who is to blame if not you who have unceasingly tried to crush each other? It is impossible to be happy without mutual benevolence; but how can benevolence coexist alongside pride? Pride! This is the root of all your troubles. Apply yourselves therefore to destroying it, if you do not wish continually to perpetuate these fatal consequences. There is only one way which offers itself for this purpose, but it is infallible: take Christ's law as your invariable rule of conduct, that very same law which has been spurned or falsified in its interpretation.

Why do you hold that which shines and enchants the eyes in higher esteem than that which touches the heart? Why do you make the vice of opulence the object of your adulations, whereas you are disdainful of true merit when it is obscure? Whenever a rich debauchee appears, even though he be lost in body and soul, all doors open, all rush to give him attention; whereas a godly person who lives by his work is hardly given a good-day! When the consideration dispensed to others is measured by the gold they possess or the name they use, what interest can they have in correcting their defects?

But it would be very different if the many degrading and immoral practices which are gilded over, were censured by public opinion as much as is the failing of poverty. But pride shows itself ever indulgent to all who flatter it. You say that this is the century of cupidity and money. Beyond doubt; but why allow material necessity to overshadow your good sense and reason? Why must each one wish to place themself above their brother? Society today suffers the consequences of this fact.


Never forget that this state of affairs is always a sign of moral decay and decline. When pride reaches extremes it is an indication of an imminent fall, for God never fails to punish the arrogant. If He sometimes allows them to rise, it is only in order to give time for meditation and to mend their ways under the blows which come to strike their pride from time to time, to serve as warnings.But instead of becoming humble, they rebel. Thus when the cup is full God will cause them to descend, and according to how high they have risen, the more terrible will be their fall.

Suffering humanity, whose selfishness has corrupted all things, we beg you to renew your courage despite everything. In His infinite mercy God has sent you a powerful remedy for all your ills, an unexpected help for all your miseries. Open your eyes to the light! Here are the souls of those who no longer live upon the Earth, who have come to call you to the fulfilment of your true obligations. They will tell you, with the voice of experience, that compared to eternity the vanities and grandeurs of this passing existence become mere trifles. There, the greatest is the one who has been the humblest amongst the most humble of your world; he who has most loved his fellow beings will himself be the best loved in Heaven. If the powerful on Earth abuse their authority, they will find themselves reduced to a position of obedience to their own servants and lastly, humility and charity, who are as two brothers going hand in hand, are the most efficient means of obtaining grace before He who is Eternal. - ADOLF, Bishop of Argel (Marmande, 1862).

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