Jean Ryzak - Power of remorse
A moral studyThis letter from Winschoten, was sent to the Journal of Brussels on May 2nd, 1867:
“Last Saturday a ditchdigger arrived in our town, presenting himself at the residence of the rural guard, where he summoned that official to arrest him, and deliver him to justice, before which, he said, he had to do confess a crime he committed several years ago. Brought before the chief magistrate, this worker, who said his name was J. Ryzak, told the following story:
About twelve years ago, I was employed in the works of drying out Lake Harlem, when one day the sergeant, paying my bi-weekly wages, gave me the pay due to one of my comrades, ordering me to pass it to him later. I spent the money and wanting to spare myself from the inconveniences of investigations, I resolved to kill the friend I had just stolen. For that, I threw him into one of the chasms of the lake, and when I saw him coming back to the surface, trying to swim towards the edge, I stabbed him twice in the neck.
As soon as my crime was committed, remorse began to be felt; it soon became intolerable, and it was impossible for me to continue the work. I started by fleeing the scene of my crime, and since I found neither peace nor truce anywhere in the country, I embarked for the Indies, where I took a job in the colonial army. But there also the specter of my victim pursued me night and day; my tortures were continuous and unheard of, and as soon as my term of service was over, an irresistible force urged me to return to Winschoten, and ask the courts to appease my conscience. It will give it to me by imposing on me on atonement as it deems appropriate; and if it orders that I die, I prefer this torture to the executioner that I have been carrying in my heart for twelve years, at all hours of the day and night."
After this declaration, and on the assurance given to the magistrate that the man he had before him was of sound mind, this magistrate requested the police, that arrested Ryzak and immediately referred the fact to the officer of justice.
We await here, with emotion, the consequences that this strange event may have.
Instructions from the Spirits on this subject.
Parisian Society, May 10th, 1867 – medium Ms. Lateltin.
Every being has, as you know, freedom from good and bad, what you call free will. Man has his conscience within him that warns him when he has done good or bad, committed a bad action, or neglected to do good; his conscience that, like a vigilant guardian, in charge of watching over him, approves or disapproves his conduct. It often happens that we are rebellious to its voice, that we reject its inspirations; we want to suffocate it by forgetting; but it is never completely destroyed enough that, at some point, it wakes up stronger and more powerful, and does not exercise severe control over your actions.
Conscience produces two different effects: the satisfaction of having done well, the peace left by the feeling of an accomplished duty, and the remorse that penetrates and tortures when one has done something disapproved by God, men or honor; it is, strictly speaking, the moral sense. Remorse is like a serpent with a thousand folds that surrounds the heart and ravages it; it is remorse that always makes the same calls and cries out to you: you did a wicked deed; you will have to be punished for it: your punishment will not stop until after the reparation has been done. And when, to this torture of a tormented conscience, the constant sight of the victim is added, of the person who was wronged; when, without rest or truce, his presence reproaches the culprit for his unworthy behavior, constantly repeating to him that he will suffer until he has atoned and repaired the evil he has done, the torture becomes intolerable; it is then that, to put an end to his tortures, his pride yields, and he confesses his crimes. Evil carries its own sorrow by the remorse it leaves, and by the reproaches of the mere presence of those towards whom one has acted badly.
Believe me, always listen to that voice that warns you when you are about to fail; do not stifle it by the revolt of your pride, and if you fail, hasten to repair the evil deed, otherwise remorse would be your punishment; the longer you delay, the more painful the reparation will be, and the more prolonged the torture.
A Spirit”
Same session, medium Mrs. B…
“You have today a remarkable example of the punishment suffered, even on earth, by those who are guilty of a bad deed. It is not only in the invisible world that the sight of a victim torments the murderer, forcing him to repent; where the justice of men has not begun atonement, divine justice begins, unbeknownst to all, the slowest and most terrible of punishments, the most dreadful punishment.
There are some people who say that the punishment inflicted on the criminal, in the spiritual world, that consists in the continual view of his crime, cannot be very effective, and that in no case this punishment. alone determines repentance. They say that a perverse nature, like that of a criminal, can only become more and more bitter, by this sight, and thus becoming worse. Those who say so do not have an idea of what can become of such a punishment; they do not know how cruel is this continual spectacle of an action that one would like to have never committed. We certainly see some criminals hardening themselves, but often it is only out of pride, and for the wishes to appear stronger than the hand that chastises them; it is to make believe that they do not let themselves be defeated by the sight of vain images; but this false courage does not last long; soon we see them weakening in the presence of this torture, that owes many of its effects to its slowness and persistence. There is no pride that can resist such an action, similar to that of the drop of water on the rock; however hard the stone may be, it is inevitably attacked, broken up, reduced to dust. That is how pride, that makes these unhappy people stiffen against their sovereign Lord, is sooner or later demolished, and repentance can finally have access to their soul; as they know that the origin of their sufferings is in their fault, they ask to repair that fault, in order to bring some relief to their ills. To those that may doubt it, just mention the fact that was brought to your attention this evening; there, it is no longer the hypothesis alone, it is no longer the teaching of the Spirits only, it is a somewhat tangible example that presents itself to you; in this example, the punishment closely followed the fault, and it was such that after several years it forced the culprit to seek atonement for his crime from human justice, and he said himself that even all the penalties, even death, would seem to him less cruel than what he suffered, when he surrendered himself to justice.
A Spirit”
Observation: Without looking for applications of remorse in serious criminals, that are exceptions in society, we find it in the most ordinary circumstances of life. It is this feeling that leads every individual to distance himself from those towards whom he feels there are reproaches to be made; in their presence, he feels bad; if the fault is not known, he fears being suspected; it seems to him that a look can penetrate the depths of his conscience; he sees in every word, in every gesture, an allusion to his person; that is why, as soon as he feels unmasked, he withdraws. The ingrate also flees his benefactor, because his sight is an incessant reproach that he uselessly seeks to get rid of, for an intimate voice cries out to him, in the depths of his conscience, that he is guilty.
If remorse is already a torture on earth, how much greater will this torture be in the spiritual world, where one cannot escape the sight of those whom one has offended! Happy are those who, having repaired from this life, will be able to face all eyes in the world where nothing is hidden, without fear.
Remorse is a consequence of the development of the moral sense; it does not exist where the moral sense is still in a latent state; that is why the savage and barbarian peoples commit the most wicked deeds without remorse. So, whoever claims to be inaccessible to remorse would be like the brute. As man progresses, the moral sense becomes more refined; he takes offense at the smallest deviation from the right path; hence remorse that is a first step towards a return to good.
