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FIFTH COMMANDMENT.

Honour thy father and thy mother.

Let him who desires to obey the commandments of the Lord comprehend them in all their grandeur. Honour thy father and thy mother! They are the chiefs whom the Lord hath given thee, and the (incarnate) guides whom he has appointed to guard thee; but are not those entrusted with thy education, who develop thy intelligence and watch over thy youth, are they not also thy father and mother spiritually? And do they not sometimes do more than the father and mother according to the flesh, who sometimes forget their sacred duties, and abandon the child whom the Lord has entrusted to their care, to its evil propensities, and often even lead it to follow their own, by setting it the example of pride, selfishness, luxury, and the vices and evil passions which degrade your humanity, and lead the spirit to perdition by causing it to fail in its trials? Is not the head of the State-the judge who governs wisely, equitably, and extends his solicitude to the meanest of his wards—a father whom you ought to honour, for he governs the great family ? And in speaking thus, we include every superior, whatever his condition, who faithfully fulfils his obligations towards his subordinates. The law of love and reverence should extend throughout all ranks and conditions of life. It is the link which binds together all the members of the universal family.

That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

These words are an extension given by Moses to the Fifth Commandment. Its object was again to compel men, in whom selfishness was the only ruling instinct, to respect and obey the law. To live comfortably, and to live long, was their first and only anxiety; and it was necessary to influence them through this weak point, as Moses well knew. But if you take the word "land" in a symbolical sense, you may understand how your life may be prolonged in the dwelling which is reserved for you, in the sense that

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you can attain it sooner by fulfilling your duties better. You know that the abodes reserved for men who deserve them are the superior spheres to which they attain as soon and in proportion as they raise themselves, and which they will reach sooner by making more efforts to perfect themselves, Man, honour thy father and thy mother, and thy days will be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, but be assured that this land is not the soil beneath thy feet.

The difficulties which have arisen in the interpretation of the commandments are due to men having been unable or unwilling to separate the law itself from additions. The law proceeds from God, and the additions proceed from man, under the Divine inspiration, transmitted by the superior spirits for a transitory purpose. That which proceeds from God is immutable law, but what proceeds from Moses, under this Divine inspiration, was a means of serving the present by the letter, and of preparing for the future by the Spirit, to aid in human progress according to the necessities of the age. Your days cannot be prolonged on earth when you occupy it by incarnation.

In the Spirits' Book we read, relative to death, "There is nothing inevitable in the true meaning of the word, but the time of death. When that time has come, no matter under what form death presents itself, you cannot escape it.'

"If so, whatever danger may seem to threaten us, we shall not die if our hour has not come?

"No, you will not be allowed to die, and of this you have thousands of examples; but when your time has come, nothing can save you.'

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Having regard to these passages, and to what you have just dictated, how are we to understand that the instant of death is fated? Must we understand that it is absolutely thus, and that man can do nothing to shorten his existence by the abuse of his free will; by his actions, or by the use which he makes of his existence, by breaking the conditions which are necessary to make his body last till the end of his trials?

The Spirits' Book is the basis of the revelation, but not all the revelation. If all details had been discussed at the time of its appearance, the storms which it has raised would have been more terrible, its adversaries more numerous, and the struggle more painful. It was needful Spirits' Book," English translation, p. 326, § 853.

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first to pave the way, and to show the light shining through the dense shades. Presently it spread over the horizon, and will still increase.

From some points of view death is fated; but can you suppose, feeble and limited creatures, that He who dwells in the Infinite, and who takes in at a single glance the innumerable galaxies of stars, measures time as you compute it? Everything is fixed in its course, and determinate in its duration, with respect to Him who is Infinity itself; but yet to you the barrier is not fixed in the sense in which you understand it.

The length of life is determined by the principle that binds the spirit to the body, This fluidic cord, of which you have heard, is the spring which regulates the movements of the body. This spring has a determinate duration, within large limits, as you may understand; but it is not timed to the exact minute of your pendulum, and a less or greater latitude is allowed to you, according to the use which you make of it, just as a bit of caoutchouc may be stretched up to a certain point, in proportion as you exert more or less force or skill.

The duration of the life of man has a natural limit, which is determined in the regular course of his existence by the operation of the immutable laws of Nature, according to circumstances and climates, because the fluids which serve for the formation and support of your beings are related to the climates in which they operate, and matter is in adequate relation to them; for, according to the law of universal harmony, everything is determinate; and within this natural limit lies the irrevocable hour of the end of human life, beyond which the free will of man is absolutely powerless to extend the duration of his body.

This is the inevitable moment, in the true sense; and it is in this sense that the life of man cannot be prolonged beyond its natural limit; but the free will of man is able, either by the resolutions which he formed before incarnation in the spiritual state, or by the use which he makes of his existence in the incarnate state, to arrest the

course of his life at a fixed time between his birth and the natural limit of human life.

The free will of the spirit enables him before incarnation, to choose the approximate duration of the body which he is about to assume, provided he fulfils the necessary conditions to cause it to last till the end of his trials; and he should therefore use all his efforts to enable him to continue them to the end.

In this case, the spirit has determined the length of his trials, and the duration of his earthly existence; and his spiritual resolution prevents him from attaining the natural limit, and the body is thus appropriated, under the supervision of the spirits who are appointed to watch over the fulfilment of his trials, in such a manner as to last the appointed time; but it is the duty of the incarnate spirit himself to fulfil every condition necessary to cause his body to last to the end of his trials.

When all these obligations are fulfilled, the instant of death is irrevocable, but not fated, in the strict sense of the term, as it is the result of the free will of the spirit, previous to incarnation. But the incarnate spirit himself can, by the abuse of his free will, and the use which he makes of his existence, arrest the course of his life between his birth and the time fixed by the resolutions which he formed previous to incarnation. This is why the sick man employs his free will in the care of his body to enable him to finish his trials, or can hasten the instant of his death, either by carelessness and indifference, which resemble suicide, or by abuse or excess, when such errors involve an infraction of the conditions necessary to enable his body to last to the end of his trials.

Thus, the time is not fixed from your point of view, although it is so in relation to the Infinite, and to the laws which govern the universe; and cannot overstep certain limits. But the instant of death is not fated, in reference to the duration of your restricted existence, because the natural limit, in the regular course of earthly existence, is rarely attained, and because your spirit-resolutions, or your

actions, which are the consequence of your free will, prevent you from attaining to this natural limit.

When the hour has come for man to depart, nothing can prevent him, whether he has attained the natural limit or whether he fails to reach it, either on account of his spiritresolutions or on account of the use which he has made of his existence, or from neglect of the conditions which it was necessary for him to fulfil to enable his body to last to the end of his trials.

Within the limit which is thus left to you, you are free to move, and to exert your free will, which would otherwise be an unmeaning term, and would inevitably lead every thinking man to the idea of fatalism, predestination, and moral slavery. But there is a distinction between whether your existence is shortened, in regard to the natural limit by your spirit-resolutions, or by your having, in the exercise of your free will, infringed the conditions which it was needful for you to fulfil. When man has fulfilled all the conditions necessary to enable his body to last till the end of his trials, and has decided on a restricted duration of existence by his spirit-resolutions, the instant of his death remains irrevocably fixed; and in such a case, whatever danger may threaten him, he will not die, if his hour has not come. The means required to save him, whatever may be his danger, will be prepared by the spirits who watch over the fulfilment of his trials and expiations. But if his hour has come, he will perish; and you have thousands of instances where some perish and others are saved under precisely similar circumstances. You have already received explanations on this subject, to which you may refer, relative to shipwreck, fire, earthquakes and falls (vol. i. Pp. 273-281).

In the case of assassination, the assassin is not the blind instrument of Providence, when he terminates the trial of one who has been marked out for expiation at a definite period. The assassination is the consequence of the free will of the one, and of the trials and expiations of the other, who, having applied the law of retaliation to himself, has

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