A Book Written by the Spirits of the So-Called Dead
Religion
A Book Written by the Spirits of the So-Called Dead
Spiritualism
"First. The citizen owes the government affection and homage. This springs
from patriotism and self-interest.
"Second. To render a cheerful obedience to and acquiescence in all
lawfully constituted authority, reserving always and of primary importance
the natural and inalienable right when all civil remedies prove
unavailing, of revolution against and resistance to, tyranny, usurpation,
and oppression.
"Third. Prompt compliance with all the lawful edicts and mandates of
government. If they are deemed unlawful, unjust, and oppressive, first
appealing to judicial supervision and all lawful means for relief and
protection--revolution the dernier ressort.
"Fourth. Loyally protecting, defending, and sustaining the government when
assailed from within or without, and when waging a just war upon a
foreign foe, or in the suppression of an unjust and indefensible internal
war, insurrection, or rebellion.
"Fifth. Aiding the government both in peace and war by being honest to and
with it in official station, and by helping to uphold and foster its
credit and honor.
"These comprise mainly the duties of the citizen to his government. He
owes other duties to society and the local community in which he resides,
but they are not considered pertinent or germane to our proposition.
"I speak of sustaining the government in war. War is a terrible thing to
contemplate, and we would gladly crush it out in its every vestige, but
you seem as yet not to have outgrown and developed above and beyond it,
and therefore we are compelled to notice the subject, however painful and
sorrowful it may be. The time is not so very far distant in the future
when nations and men will progress beyond this horrible relic of
barbarism, when the fierce god of war will give place to the sweet and
gentle spirit of peace and brotherly love; when all differences will be
amicably adjusted without a resort to the arbitrament of the sword and the
instruments of devastation, bloodshed, and death."
August 17, 1882:
"In a certain sense the people are the children of the government, and in
a still more important sense the government is the offspring of the
people. If you ask me what, under the law of your present state of
development, are the duties of the child to the parent, I answer
obedience, maintenance, and protection. If you ask me the duties of the
parent to the child, I answer maintenance, education, and protection. The
family government was the first government in the infancy of the race from
which all other governments naturally and progressively sprang, and their
relations and reciprocating duties are much the same.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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