Speech Given by Mr. Sabò“Ladies and gentlemen,
Let us pay tribute to God with our sincere acknowledgement for having cast upon us a paternal and benevolent glance, giving us the precious favor of receiving the teachings of the good spirits who, in turn, come every day to help us to distinguish between the truth and the mistake; to give us assurance of future happiness; show us that the punishment is proportional to the offense, but not eternal, helping us to understand this fair and equitable law of reincarnation, the key to the vault of the spiritist building, serving our purification and helping our progress towards good.
I said reincarnation! But to make it more understandable, let us give in a moment to speak with one of our spiritual guides who out of pure kindness will give us instructions about this serious matter and interesting subject for our poor humanity. He says: ‘Reincarnation is hell; reincarnation is purgatory; reincarnation is atonement; reincarnation is progress. Finally, it is the sacred ladder that every man must climb. The steps are the phases of the several existences to cover to get to the top, for God has said that to get there one needs to be born, die and born again until the limits of perfection are reached and that nobody will reach it if not purified by reincarnation.’
Spiritism, being still new to science, we had only good will and enthusiasm to propagate it. A pleased God blessed our efforts by germinating in the hearts of some of our brothers from Bordeaux the seed of the divine word. In fact we have been involved with the practical science since January and we have seen a number of brothers establishing a link with us, brothers who were doing it in isolation; others who heard about it through the voice of the press, or the fame, this far-reaching trumpet, which is responsible for knowing the arrival at all points of our city of this consoling faith, indisputable testimony of God’s benevolence towards His children.
Despite the difficulties we encountered on the way, strong of purity and righteousness of our convictions, supported by the advices of our beloved and venerable leader, Mr. Allan Kardec, we have the rewarding satisfaction after nine months of apostolate and with the help of some of our brothers to meet today in your presence to inaugurate this Society that, I hope, will continue to bear fruits abundantly and spread like a benevolent dew onto the hearts dried by materialism, hardened by selfishness, full of pride, and will take the balm of resignation to those in suffering and affliction, to the poor and disinherited of earthly goods, saying: ‘Have trust and courage! Earthly trials are a short duration compared to the eternity of happiness that God reserves for you.’
Yes, I confess out loud that I am happy for being the interpreter of a large number of members of the Spiritist Society of Bordeaux, reaffirming our fidelity in following the road that is drawn to us by our dear missionary present here, since we understand that to be consistent, progress must take place gradually and that fighting certain ideas that come from centuries ago we would only send away our spiritual emancipation. It is possible that we may find divergent opinions about it among us. We respect them. In our opinion we must advance step by step following the wisdom of the nations: chi va piano va sano. It is possible, we will arrive later but we will have more certainty because we will not have broken from the faith of our ancestors, always sacred to us, whatever it may be. Let us use the light of Spiritism not to abate but for our own betterment, for our progress. Withstanding with courage and resignation the vicissitudes of this life in which we are only passing through and will merit the favor at the end of our trials, of being led by the Spirits of the Lord to enjoy immortality for which we were created.
Allow me, dear master, in the name of the members of this Society who surround you, to thank you for the honor of having come in person to inaugurate this family reunion, that is a party to all of us and that will make history, no doubt, in the archives of Spiritism. Also, may you equally receive that this day remains stored in our hearts and in a very special way the most sincere expression of our recognition for the paternal kindness with which you have encouraged our feeble work. You were the one who drawn the path which we gladly followed, convinced beforehand that your mission is to make our beautiful France advance spiritually which at the same time will incite other nations of on the earth, helping them to reach happiness, little by little, through moral and intellectual progress.”
