New Year’s Greetings from a Spiritist from LeipzigA Spiritist from Leipzig had the following card printed in German, whose translation we provide below with pleasure.
“My good wishes for the New Year, to all Spiritists and Spiritualists of Leipzig.
To you too who call yourselves materialists, because you only want to know matter, I would be tempted to send you my wishes of happiness, but I am afraid you would consider this as a boldness of a stranger who does not have the right to be counted among you.
It is different with the Spiritualists, who are on the same ground as the Spiritists, concerning the belief in the immortality of the soul, in its individuality and in its happy or unhappy state after death. Spiritualists and Spiritists recognize in each man a sister soul, and by that gives me the right to send them my good wishes. All of them thank the Lord for the year that has just passed, and they hope that, supported by his grace, they will have the courage to endure the trials of unhappy days, the strength to work for their betterment by taming their passions.
To you, dear Spiritists, known and unknown brothers and sisters, I particularly wish you a Happy New Year, because you have received from God, for your earthly pilgrimage, a great support in Spiritism. Religion has come to bring faith to all and blessed are those who have kept it. Unfortunately, it is extinct in many; that is why God is sending a new weapon to fight skepticism, pride and selfishness that are assuming greater and greater proportions. This new weapon is the communication with the Spirits; through that we have faith, because it gives us the certainty of the life of the soul, and allows us to glance into the other life; we thus recognize the vanity of earthly happiness, and we have the solution of the difficulties that made us doubt everything, even the existence of God.
Jesus said to his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you could not bear it yet.” Today, having progressed, humanity can understand them; that is why God gave us the science of Spiritism, and the proof that humanity is ripe for this science is that this science exists. It is useless to deny and to mock, as in the past it was useless to deny and mock the facts sustained by Copernicus and Galileo. These facts were as little recognized then as they are now in the world of the Spirits. As in the past, the first opponents are the scholars, until the day when, seeing themselves isolated, they will humbly recognize that new discoveries, such as steam, electricity and magnetism, that were unknown once, are not the last word of the laws of nature. They will be responsible before future generations for not having welcomed the new science, like the sister of the others, and for having rejected it like a madness.
It is true that she does not teach anything new by proclaiming the life of the soul, since Christ spoke of it; but Spiritism removes all doubts and sheds new light on this question. Let us beware, however, of considering the teachings of Christianity as useless, and of believing them to be replaced by Spiritism; let us strengthen ourselves, on the contrary, at the source of the Christian truths, for which Spiritism is only a new torch, so that our intelligence and our pride do not lead us astray. Spiritism teaches us, before anything, that “without love and charity, there is no happiness”, that is to say that one must love one's neighbor as oneself; by basing oneself on this Christian truth, it opens the way for the fulfillment of these words of Christ: “One flock and one shepherd."
Therefore, dear Spiritist brothers and sisters, allow me to add this prayer, to my good wishes for the New Year: that you will never misuse the power to communicate with the spiritual world. Let us not forget that, according to the law on which our relationships with the Spirits are based, the evil ones are not excluded from the communications. While it is difficult to ascertain the identity of a Spirit that is unknown to us, it is easy to distinguish the good from the bad. These can hide under the mask of hypocrisy, but a good Spiritist always recognizes them; this is why one should not deal with these things lightheartedly, because one can become the plaything of evil Spirits, although intelligent, as one sometimes finds in the world of the incarnate. If we compare our communications with those obtained in the meetings of earnest and sincere Spiritists, we will soon be able to recognize if we are on the right track. Elevated Spirits are recognized by their language that is the same everywhere, always in accordance with the Gospel and human reason.
The way to protect oneself from evil Spirits is first to make a sincere prayer to God; second, to never use Spiritism for material things. Evil Spirits are always ready to satisfy any request, and if sometimes they say right things, more often they deceive out of intention or ignorance, because inferior Spirits know no more than during their earthly life. The good Spirits, on the contrary, help us in our efforts to improve ourselves, and make us know the spiritual life, so that we can assimilate it to ours. This is the goal towards which all sincere Spiritists must strive.
Adolf, Count of Poninski.
Leipzig, January 1st, 1868.”
