pressing their senses with external rites and material images. After this, relieve and console whomsoever you can. Go to those whom you have offended, and ask them to forget your faults; and go to those who have cruelly injured you in your interests, happiness, or pride, and bring them your pardon and your peace. Visit those who are sick and unhappy; exhort them to resignation, instruct them, and encourage them to hope. Visit those unhappy ones who want the necessities of life, and relieve them according to your means. Impose on yourselves some slight privation every day in the week for their sakes, according to your abilities and position. Take this offering to those who are in want; and if you are unable to do this, if you are so poor yourselves that you are really unable to make any sacrifice whatever, endeavour at least to console those who are suffering from any misfortune. Go then, children, and sanctify the Lord's day by good works, and sincere and holy resolutions. When your day is ended, and you thank God for the little good which he has permitted you to accomplish, ask that he may permit you to do more in future. Search your hearts, to discover if you have done your work as well as you were able. Go, then, and if you act thus the blessings of the Lord will descend upon you. Rest your bodies from exhausting labour, but never let your hearts rest from any good which you can accomplish. MATTHEW, CHAP. XII.-VERSES 9-14. MARK, Cure of the man with the palsied hand, on the Sabbath. Matth. xii. (9) And departing thence, he came into their synagogue. (10) And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand, and they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? that they might denounce him. . (11) And he said to them, What man among you, who has a sheep, would not seize hold of it and pull it out, if it should fall into a ditch on the Sabbath days? (12) How much better, therefore, is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. (13) Then he saith to the man, Stretch out thy hand. And he stretched it out, and it was restored healthy like the other. (14) And the Pharisees went out, and took counsel against him how they might destroy him. Mark iii. (1) And he entered the synagogue again, and there was a man there whose hand was diseased. (2) And they were watching if he would heal him on the Sabbath days, that they might accuse him. (3) And he saith to the man whose hand was diseased, Rise up in the midst. (4) And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy it? And they were silent. (5) And looking round upon them with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts, he saith to the man, Stretch out thy hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored healthy like the other. (6) And the Pharisees went out immediately, and took counsel with the Herodians how they might destroy him. Luke vi. (6) And it came to pass on another Sabbath that he went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. (7) And the Scribes and Pharisees watched him if he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against him. (8) And he knew their plots, and said to the man whose hand was withered, Rise up, and stand in the midst. (9) And he rose up, and stood. Then Jesus said to them, Consider ye, what is fitting, to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath days; to save life, or to destroy it? (10) And looking round upon them all, he said to the man, Stretch out thy hand. And he did so, and his hand was restored healthy like the other. (1) And they were filled with rage, and debated with each other what they should do to Jesus. § 157. We need not repeat the explanations which we have already given respecting the Sabbath, and the use which man should make of it. The sick man who was healed by Jesus in the synagogue suffered from paralysis of the right hand. This is the correct meaning of the withered hand, as some translations express it. We have explained twice already (§§ 110 and 121) how Jesus cured paralysis. He healed the paralysed hand, and rendered it as healthy as the other, by the magnetic action. of his will and his gaze, and directed strengthening fluids upon the diseased hand, and the organism of the patient. Have you not seen magnetic effects produced by a look? You are told in the narrative of Mark (v. 5) that Jesus looked upon the Scribes and Pharisees with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts. These are human expressions, and when you read the Gospel narratives you must never confound expressions which reproduce the im pressions, ideas, and opinions of the men surrounding Jesus, and to whom he spoke, with the actual words, personality, and actions of the Master himself. The heart of Jesus was never inflamed with anger. The original word signifies either anger or indignation; and it must here be understood to mean indignation. The Hebrews, like yourselves, constantly spoke of the wrath of God as weighing upon the guilty. But how could God and Christ partake in the feeling of anger which they denounced in men? The men around Jesus thought that he was indignant at seeing the Scribes and Pharisees resist his efforts to reform them. In reality, he suffered when he saw the guilty spirits whom he desired to enlighten, close their eyes against the light lest they might perceive it. Are not your guardian angels grieved at the hardness of your hearts; and were not the Scribes and Pharisees gifted with free will? Do not wonder at the painful impression which Jesus experienced, notwithstanding his knowledge of the future. Consider well the nature of the fore-knowledge of God, and that which Jesus possesses as the direct representative of the divine will, having regard to the free will of man. We have already explained to you that God sees and knows the state of the spirit, and follows the phases of progress, and the successive stages of existence which the spirit must pass through, in which he is required to exert his free will, either for good or evil, by the action of his own will, or under the secret influence of the good or evil spirits whom he attracts or repulses according to the good or evil tendency of his feelings, desires, and tendencies. Man is subject to this influence at every moment, and this constitutes the temptation which he is free to yield to, or to resist. He is always free to listen to good inspirations, or to close his ears against them; to follow them or not to follow them; or to accept or reject evil inspirations. Consequently, it is under these surrounding influences that the spirit, in the fulness of his free will, must advance or stand still in the path of progress. It is thus that the Scribes and Pharisees were required to accept or reject the teachings of Jesus. The Scribes and Pharisees who stood around Jesus in the synagogue were hardened incarnate spirits. It was therefore improbable that they would accept the light, but they had yet the opportunity afforded them of escaping from painful expiations; for the Lord never shows any partiality. Spirits are generally incarnated by their own free choice, as regards both the kind and scene of their experiences. They generally select scenes which are congenial to them; and pride reigned supreme among the men of authority among the Jews at the time of Jesus; the Scribes, Pharisees, and chief priests. Pride closed their eyes and ears; but the goodness of God opened to them, as to all others, this new path of purification. Their guardian angels worked for their advancement as they do for all; but they repulsed them by an effort of their independent will; and in the fulness of their free choice, they accepted the evil influences and inspirations of evil spirits. But even if the new path which was thus opened to them was sterile in that existence, it would nevertheless yield fruits of purification after death, with the aid of subsequent existences. MATTHEW, CHAP. XII.-VERSES 15-21. Mission of the Messiah. (15) And when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence, and large crowds followed him, and he healed them all, (16) And cautioned them not to make him known, (17) That the word might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, (18) Behold my son, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall announce judgment to the nations. (19) He shall not strive nor shout, nor shall any one hear his voice in the streets. (20) A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, until he shall have brought judgment to victory. (21) And the nations shall trust in his name. § 158. The words of the prophet Isaiah apply to Jesus, and are easily understood by freeing the spirit from the letter. You must remember what had just taken place, and how the Pharisees had been plotting together to destroy Jesus, and consulting what they should do against him; and the caution which Jesus himself gave to those who followed him, and whom he healed. Jesus is the servant of God, and his beloved, because he is a pure and perfect spirit. God chose him by appointing him to be the protector and ruler of your planet. His soul delighteth in him, by communicating to him his power, justice, and compassion, and thus exalting your Master by entrusting him with the formation of your planet, and with the direction and guidance both of the planet itself, and of everything which moves or exists upon it, as well as of humanity, in the paths of physical, moral, and intellectual progress, that he may lead you to the purity and perfection to which you ought to attain. God constantly puts his spirit upon him by the direct Divine inspiration which he communicates to him. Jesus has manifested justice to the nations by his earthly mission, by showing them the straight and sure course of conduct by which alone they can reach the goal. He still manifests justice to the nations to-day, when the new and regenerative era of Spiritism has commenced, by the spirits of the Lord, who come in his name to explain and to develop in spirit and in truth the good news which he himself preached to men. But this time he illumines the path of progress in the name of the Spirit of Truth; and all men can follow it with unhesitating steps, guided by the spiritual light from the torch of truth, through knowledge, charity, and love, which are about to reconcile faith and reason. (Matth. xii. 19.)—These words alluded to the customs of the Hebrews, who assembled in the streets to deliberate over important matters, when every one sought to enforce his own opinion by trying to shout down his opponents. But Jesus did not strive nor shout, nor was his voice thus heard in the streets. You are told that he spoke to men as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (Matth. xii. 20.)-These words allude to guilty spirits in whom there is any tendency, however slight, to improvement. Jesus never did and never will break the bruised reed, or quench the smouldering flax, because every spirit must reach the goal, and Jesus never rejects any guilty |