28. A man is agonizing under cruel suffering. His state is known to be desperate. Would it be licit to save him a few instants of anguish by hastening his end?
Who has given you the right to prejudge God's purpose? Can He not conduct a person to the very brink of the grave and then withdraw them, in order that they may awaken and recognise the need to change their ideas? Even when a dying person has reached the last extremes no one can be absolutely sure the final hour has arrived. Has science never been wrong in its predictions?
Of course there are cases which, with good reason, can be considered desperate. But even if there is no hope of a definite return to life and health, there always exists the possibility, testified on many occasions, of a sick person recovering their faculties at the last instant. Well then, this is the hour of grace conceded by God which may be of extreme importance. You do not understand the reflections which the Spirit may have during those last agonizing convulsions, nor how a lightning repentance may save them from many torments.
The materialist, who only sees the body and does not take into consideration the Spirit, is not apt to understand these things. But the Spiritist who knows what happens in the after life, comprehends the value of these last thoughts. So mitigate the last sufferings as much as you can, but guard yourself against abbreviating life, be it even for a minute, as this minute can be the means of avoiding many tears in the future.
- Saint Louis (Spirit).
Paris, 1860.
Excerpted from Chapter V - Blessed are the afflicted - of "The Gospel according to Spiritism" - Allan Kardec.
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