9. God is unique, and Moses was a Spirit whom He sent on a mission to make known His presence, not only to the Hebrews but to all the pagan world. The Hebrew peoples were God's instrument to enable Him to manifest through Moses and the prophets. The vicissitudes suffered by these peoples were meant to attract their attention and so help disclose the existence of the Divinity.
God's commandments as revealed through Moses contain the essence of the most comprehensive Christian morality. However, the biblical commentaries and annotations restrict their meaning, because if they had been put into action in all their pureness they would not have been understood. Nevertheless, these ten commandments have become a brilliant frontispiece and a beacon destined to light up the pathway which humanity must follow.
The morality taught by Moses was appropriate to the stale of advancement of the people he proposed to regenerate. These people, who were semi-barbaric with respect to the perfecting of the soul, would not have understood that God could be worshipped by other means than holocaust, nor that it is necessary to forgive one's enemies. From the materialistic, scientific and artistic points of view their intelligence was remarkable. But they were morally backward and would never have been converted by a wholly spiritual religion. Therefore it was necessary that they be offered a semi-materialistic form of religion, as is represented in the Hebrew faith. The holocausts spoke to their senses at the same time that the idea of God touched their Spirits.
Christ was the initiator of the most pure and sublime morality. That is to say, the morality of the evangelical Christian, which will renew the entire world by bringing together all mankind and turning them into brothers and sisters. It will cause charity to blossom forth in all hearts as well as love for one's neighbour, so establishing a common solidarity between all peoples. Finally, from this morality, which will transform the whole Earth, the planet will become the home of far superior Spirits than inhabit it till now. This is the law of progress which will be accomplished and to which nature is submitted. Spiritism is the lever which God is using to enable humanity to advance.
The time has come in which moral ideas must be developed to bring about the progress determined by God. They will follow the same route as that taken by the ideas of liberty, us predecessor. Do not think however, that these developments will be effected without a fight. No, in order to reach maturity these ideas will need discussion and conflicts so that they may attract the attention of the masses. Once this has been achieved, the beauty and sanctity of this morality will touch all Spirits, who will in turn embrace a science which will give them the key to a future life and open the doors to eternal happiness.
Moses showed humanity the way; Jesus continued this work; Spiritism will finish it.
- An Israelite Spirit.
Mulhouse, 1861.
Excerpted from Chapter I - I have not come to destroy the law - of "The Gospel according to Spiritism" - Allan Kardec.
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