I will say a few words to help you understand the objective proposed by the missionaries, leaving behind homelands and families to go and evangelize ferocious and ignorant tribes, although brothers, inclined to evil and oblivious of good; or to preach mortification, trust in God, prayer, faith, resignation in suffering, charity, hope of a better life after repentance. You will ask: isn’t that Spiritism? Yes, noble souls that always served God and faithfully observed His laws; who love and help their fellow human beings, you are spiritists. But you don’t understand and you are afraid of this new word.
Well, since you are afraid, we shall not repeat it until you come to us and ask about this word that summarizes the existence of the spirits and their manifestations: Spiritism. Beloved brothers and sisters, what are the missionaries together with nations in their infancy? Spirits with a mission, sent by God, our father, to clarify the poor and more ignorant spirits; to teach patience and hope, to help people to know and love Him, to be good husbands and wives, good parents, good to their peers; to give them the idea of good and beauty as much as possible given their current condition.
But you who are so proud of your own intelligence, know this, that you came from as low as they are now and that you still have a lot to do to reach the highest degree. I ask you this, my friends: Without the missions and the missionaries, what would become of those poor people left to their own passions and savage nature? But tell me this: Are you the ones to go and preach the Gospel to those rude people, like the devoted brothers? No, you are not. You have family, friends, a position that you cannot abandon. No, not you who loves the warmth of a home; no, not you who enjoys wealth, honor, all the happiness for the satisfaction of your vanity and selfishness; no, it will not be you. It must be someone who gladly leaves behind their paternal homes and their homeland; people who don’t care much about life because they know it is sometimes crossed by the sword and the fire; people who are convinced that whenever they work in the land of the Lord, watering it with their own blood it is because they know that the reward for so much sacrifice will come later, in heaven.
Now, tell me if the disbelievers would be capable of such devotion, since they expect nothing after this life? Believe me, those are spirits sent by God. You must no longer laugh at what you call foolishness because they are enlightened, and by exposing their own lives to clarify their ignorant brothers and sisters they deserve your respect and sympathy. Yes, they are incarnate spirits with the dangerous mission of stimulating those rough intelligences, like other more advanced spirits that have the mission of helping you to progress. Spiritism is our mission, my friends. Don’t be afraid of that word. In particular, don’t laugh, because that word is the symbol of the universal law that rules all beings of creation.
Adolph, bishop of Alger
