to suffer the expiatory reincarnation reserved for guilty spirits, but he beholds new paths of purification and progress open before him by faith, by reincarnation in a world higher than that which he has left. He who does not believe this, and does not practise the sublime and simple morality of which Jesus is the personification, is condemned. That is, after suffering in the errant state the expiation which is appropriate to his faults or crimes, he suffers expiatory reincarnation with the object of reparation and progress, recommencing what has to be done over again.

"These signs shall follow those who believe; in my name they shall cast out demons." By the aid of superior spirits, supported, when needful, by that of the pure spirits, who are all able to drive away evil ones instantaneously from those who are obsessed or subjugated.

"They shall speak with new tongues." Being rendered speaking mediums, under the influence and fluidic action of the good spirits.

"They shall take up serpents in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." They shall be preserved by the action of the protecting spirits, who will annul the poison by means of appropriate fluids, invisibly employed to that end. Let not your physiologists and chemists who think themselves so wise, and are still completely ignorant of the nature and properties of fluids, deny this; but they will long remain ignorant of the powers and the mysteries of the fluidic creation. To arrive at this result, humanity has much to labour, progress, and acquire, both morally and intellectually. You will learn more and more, as you advance with humility and simplicity inspired by charity and love, and with the desire of progress. You will advance by labour in the paths of light, knowledge, and truth, and thus in the knowledge of the laws of nature which govern the fluids, and their effects.

"They shall lay their hands on the sick, and they shall recover." By the invisible aid of the good spirits who dispense purifying, regenerative, or strengthening fluids, fitted

his body? Was it not needful for him to impress them more deeply with the gratitude which his "sacrifice” should inspire, by bringing it within reach of the intelligence of material men?

Had Jesus made known his spiritual origin, and showed himself to the disciples only under a fluidic appearance, these superstitious men would have been frightened. They would have remembered the prohibition to invoke the dead, and would have thought that they had broken the laws of Moses. Jesus would then have been classed among the spectres which issue from their tombs, and would have equally been regarded as human; but their minds were impressed by a tangibility of the causes of which they were ignorant. Jesus, therefore, gave them all the proofs which were necessary to convince them, even taking food, which disappeared in the manner which we have already explained.

Supposing Jesus had revealed himself to men as he was, what explanations would not have been needed; and what would have been the consequences? What a dangerous weapon would have been placed in the hands of men by spiritual science, of which you still make so bad a use! It was needful that faith should be blind, until the eyes of the soul should be strong enough to bear the light.

Here, as in all similar cases, the Gospel narratives explain and complete each other, and those of Mark and Luke should not be isolated from that of John (xx. 19-29). Mark confines himself to stating the fact of the appearance of Jesus to the eleven Apostles, without detailing the circumstances and manner of the successive appearances which preceded his "ascension." Luke gives an account of the first appearance to the Apostles, before John wrote; but he has omitted the appearance which took place eight days afterwards in the presence of Thomas; and this led him to assert that the eleven Apostles were present. Thomas, indeed, saw the Master like the ten other Apostles; but, as John relates, he only saw him at his second appearance. But these trifling variations in the narratives have no bearing on the work of regeneration which Jesus came to accomplish.

descend from heaven on clouds; but this time with great majesty, and in all his spiritual glory, when he shall have led you and your planet from the material state to the verge of the purely fluidic state, and when you are ready to attain perfection. He will then lead your world, now truly become "his kingdom," into the regions of pure fluids, where it will become one of the "kingdoms of the Father," where only pure spirits dwell, or can dwell.

END OF PART I.

of the Lake of Tiberias to Simon Peter, Thomas, called Didymus, Nathaniel, who was from Cana in Galilee; the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples, who were together, and had gone fishing.

The words recorded by Matthew (xxviii. 18-20) and Mark (xvi. 15-19) were spoken on the mountain; and Jesus afterwards raised his hands and blessed the disciples, and while blessing them was lifted up to heaven (Mark xvi. 19; Luke xxiv. 50-51).

Then, as Luke says (v. 52), (though he and the other Evangelists omitted what passed after the ascension of Jesus,* which was to be recorded in the Acts of the Apostles), the disciples, after doing homage to Jesus, returned to Jerusalem. The details of their return (except their standing on the Mount of Olives, which was mentioned afterwards†) were unimportant, and not worth recording for the instruction of future generations.

The Evangelists did not relate in detail all the various appearances of Jesus, any more than all the actions which he performed; but only those which were needful for the results which were to spring from the Master's earthly mission. John has told you as much (xx. 30; xxi. 35).

It was needful to inform men, in addition to what was recorded in the Gospels, that Jesus appeared to the Apostles during forty days, ‡ speaking to them of the kingdom of God.

You are told (Matth. xxviii. 17), that when the eleven Apostles saw Jesus on the mountain, they did homage to him, and yet they doubted. But you must understand that these last words do not apply to the Apostles, who were then all convinced, and who did homage to Jesus when they saw him. The Apostles did not go to the mountain alone, but were followed by a multitude of others; and it was some of these who doubted, knowing nothing of the "resurrection" of Jesus, and of his successive appearances, except from hearsay. But what they were then about to see and hear Acts i. 3.

*Acts i. 10, II.

+ Acts i. 12.