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away, but your human generations will succeed each other. many times before the leaven shall have leavened all the meal.

Progress must pursue the regular course which it has followed until this age, resembling, though in inverse proportions, the ball which rolls down a mountain. We say inversely, because the ball rolls down the mountain, whereas progress ascends at first by slow and painful steps; but little by little the first difficulties are surmounted; it finds a passage more easily, and at length finds the path carved in the rock, which will lead it to the summit. Then it acquires its full impulse, and bounding like an ibex pursued by hunters, it leaps forward, springs over every obstacle, and at length reaches the blessed haven which it. longed to attain. The beginning of the course of the ball which descends the mountain, as a figure of the progress which ascends it, is first slow, and then grows more rapid little by little, and when it has nearly arrived at the middle of the course which it has to traverse, its speed increases in proportion to the impulse which it has received. It will soon bound forwards towards the goal; but we tell you again that it has scarcely reached the middle of its course at present.

Do not be too ready to believe in the speedy regeneration of your planet. Work zealously at the moral and intellectual improvement of men; and when the moral work shall advance (and you are scarcely at the beginning, not of the work, but even of the idea) you will then perceive the physical nature of your planet change its aspect; but before reconstructing the habitation on a new plan, it is needful that the inhabitants should be prepared to enter it. Everything in the divine work is linked together; matter is conformed to matter; but when your moral progress has been sufficient to fit you to live a spiritual rather than an animal life, you will see the appearance of your planet gradually change; its material constitution will be purified in the same proportion; and when the necessities of humanity change their nature, the products of the soil will

likewise change their character. Matter was not created for the spirit, but for the body; and the less dominion the flesh exerts over you, the less will become your material necessities; and consequently the more will your planet be modified to assimilate it to the changes of your nature. Your planet and your humanity are destined to purify themselves, and to advance without ceasing towards fluidic conditions; for this is the universal goal.

(Mark iv. 26-29.)-By this parable Jesus showed the multitude that the spirit of man must, like seed cast into the earth, pass through the stages of germination, growth, transformation, development and fructification, and arrive at moral and intellectual maturity before it can be handed over at harvest time to the care of the reapers who are commissioned to gather it for the kingdom of God.

Jesus said to the multitude, speaking of the seed cast into the ground, "the seed should grow and increase he knows not how," because at the age when he addressed them, men, and especially those to whom he spoke, troubled themselves little to search into the source of things, or to endeavour to understand them, and to follow their course. You must remember that, of all the ancient nations, the Hebrew nation was one of the most ignorant, and accepted, with repugnance, the progress which had been made, and was forced upon it, but was so proud of race that it never sought to make any of its own accord.

Until your own times, the seed has sprouted and increased without man knowing how. Progress has been made without his perceiving its secret springs, in the occult influence of the spirits of the Lord, seconded by that of the missionary spirits on your earth.

But for his apathy man would long since have been able to notice the workings of the divine seed; but those who received the seed were proud and vain like the Hebrews, and permitted it to grow without trying to study its phenomena. The New Revelation will teach you the manner of your progress by the light which Spiritism throws on the influences around you, and it likewise enables you to study

and understand the phenomena of the germination and growth of the divine seed.

But whether man is born or dies, and whether he sleeps or wakes, progress pursues its course, and in time, by expiation and reincarnation the guilty and rebellious will make progress, and the spiritual light will shine over all your earth, and enlighten the steps of all men. Woe to those who wilfully remain blind! for they too must progress, but for this they must suffer those long and painful expiations on the inferior planets which have become necessary for their moral improvement and progress.

From a spiritual point of view, the parable of the seed cast into the ground is the emblem of the ages that man has traversed in the path of progress since his first appearance on your globe, and of the ages which he must still traverse before his regeneration, for the searching eyes of the Master penetrated both the past and the future. The blade which the earth has produced in consequence of the germination and growth of the seed denotes the time which preceded the appearance of Jesus on your earth; the formation of the ear denotes the period which followed the appearance of the Master until your own age; and the formation of the full corn in the ear, when it has arrived at maturity, and the sickle is brought, denotes the present and future era of Spiritism, which comes to prepare and to accomplish the regeneration of humanity by the New Revelation, and to fulfil the promises which Jesus made to men in his prophetic words.

Since the appearance of man upon your planet, the spirits of the Lord, by their occult influence in the errant state, and those, always superior to the masses, who were successively sent on missions, have aided in the progress of successive generations of men, according to the immutable will of God, and under the direction of the Master. They have laboured at the development of progress, and the germination and growth of the seed, which produced first the blade, and then the ear. They will now, according to the results already obtained and the degree of fertility and

warmth of the soil, labour at the formation of the corn, and at maturing the grain which is already formed, that it may be ready for the sickle when the time of harvest has come. As regards the grain which has already ripened since the diffusion of the New Revelation, they have already begun to use the sickle, because the time of harvest has come.

At the present day, the corn is formed, and the grain is ripening, and it is ripe already in a few chosen places. Thus the sickle has been used already. Try to understand our words. Spiritism has not existed many hours; but has not the grain been formed already in many places? Moreover, have not the beneficent rays of the sun of truth begun to bring many hearts to maturity, and have not its vivifying rays ripened some ears in a few chosen spots, which we have gathered with care? The entire harvest is not ripe; far from that; but partial reapings can be made, and in the vast field which the Lord has entrusted to us, the most fertile and warmest soils are best suited to mature it.

The sun of truth gilds the ears which form, and the grains swell. Expose those ears on which we reckon to its rays, and let them ripen till the moment when the harvest is ready. Let them be penetrated by the fecundating fires shed upon them by the Lord; and every ripened ear will be committed to the hands of the reapers. When the sheaves of chosen ears have been formed, we shall cast these fruitful seeds over your earth; and then, animated by divine love, these seeds will yield abundant harvests, and will make the most barren soil productive; only prepare the ears which must furnish the seed. The allegory is obvious, and easily understood; these fruitful seeds are the purified spirits who will be sent on a mission to your earth to aid their incarnate brethren to advance morally and intellectually, and to fulfil their experiences in the path traced out by Jesus, and enlightened by the New Revelation. Go, children, purify and raise yourselves, and always bow your heads the lower before the divine Majesty the higher your hearts are raised towards him.

Yes, as Jesus said, when the corn has arrived at maturity,

the sickle is brought because the time of harvest has come. When you are ripe, we shall assemble you amongst us to give you your instructions under the direction of the Master, and according to the will of the Lord. You will go to aid in the maturity of the grain, and when the sickle is brought, and the harvest is finished, we shall prepare the seed for the following season, and thus the purification and renovation of the human race will be accomplished.

(Matth. xiii. 34, 35.)---What Jesus revealed to men, under the mystery and in the darkness of parable, concerning the life eternal, had not yet been spoken. The Hebrews had a vague idea of the immortality of the soul, and Christ. came to give his disciples, as well as the rebellious Jews, a definite idea of that which was previously a shadow.

(Mark iv. 34, 35.)-Jesus explained to his disciples the sense in which they were to understand his words, but while he let them perceive their prophetic character, he only gave them what they were able to receive in the incarnate state, and what they needed for the accomplishment of their mission under the empire of the letter, veiling from them everything which required to remain secret, until men had become capable of receiving the New Revelation gradually, in proportion as they were able to bear it.

MATTHEW, CHAP. XIII.-VERSES 36-43.

Explanation of the Parable of the Darnel.

(36) Then Jesus having sent away the crowds, went into the house, and his disciples came to him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the darnel in the field. (37) And he answered and said unto them, The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. (38) The field is the world: the good seed represents the children of the kingdom, and the darnel represents the children of the wicked one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. (39) And the harvest is the consummation of the era; and the reapers are angels. (40) As therefore the darnel was collected, and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the consummation of this age. (41) The Son of Man shall send his angels, and shall gather out of his kingdom all them that offend, and those who work lawlessness. (42) And shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth (43) Then the just shall shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

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