Samuel Philippe
Samuel Philippe was known as a deeply honest and selfless man. He was never known to deliberately harm anyone or commit a wicked act. His devotion to his friends was limitless, and anyone who needed help could rely on him, even when helping them required personal sacrifice. He willingly endured hardship, exhaustion, and inconvenience in order to help others, and he did so naturally, without seeking praise or recognition. When people thanked him for his kindness, he was genuinely surprised that anyone considered his actions extraordinary.
Even people who treated him badly still received kindness from him. If someone repaid his generosity with ingratitude, he would calmly say, “It is not I who should be pitied... but they.”
Although highly intelligent and naturally gifted, his life on Earth was difficult and filled with heavy trials. He was one of those rare souls whose goodness remains mostly unnoticed by the world. Through Spiritism, he developed a deep faith in the future life and great acceptance of earthly suffering. He died in December 1862, at the age of fifty, after a long and painful illness. Several months later, his spirit was evoked.
AllanDo you clearly remember your final moments on Earth?
Samuel PhilippePerfectly.
Samuel PhilippeThe memory returned to me little by little.
Samuel PhilippeAt the moment of my departure, however, my thoughts were confused.
AllanFor our instruction, and because of the admiration we feel for your exemplary life, would you kindly describe how your passage from life on Earth into spirit life happened?
AllanAnd would you also describe the condition in which you now find yourself?
Samuel PhilippeGladly.
Samuel PhilippeThis account will be useful not only to you, but also to myself.
Samuel PhilippeBy turning my thoughts back toward the Earth, the comparison helps me better appreciate the goodness of the Creator.
Samuel PhilippeYou know how full of sorrows my life was.
Samuel PhilippeBut thank God... my courage never failed me during hardship.
Samuel PhilippeAnd now I rejoice that I endured my sufferings courageously.
Samuel PhilippeHow much I would have lost had I given way to discouragement!
Samuel PhilippeI tremble at the thought that, through weakness, I might have lost the benefit of everything I endured and been forced to begin the lesson all over again.
Samuel PhilippeOh friends... be fully convinced of this truth.
Samuel PhilippeYour future happiness depends upon it.
Samuel PhilippeNo... a few years of suffering are not too high a price to pay for eternal happiness.
Samuel PhilippeIf you could only understand how small a few short years are compared to eternity!
Samuel PhilippeIf my last existence appears somewhat admirable to you, you would not have said the same of those that came before it.
Samuel PhilippeIt was only through constant struggles against my evil tendencies that I became what I am now.
Samuel PhilippeIn order to erase the last traces of my former faults, I needed to undergo these final trials... trials that I accepted willingly.
Samuel PhilippeThe firmness of my determination gave me the strength to endure them without complaint.
Samuel PhilippeI now bless those trials.
Samuel PhilippeThrough them, I broke with the past, which for me is now only a memory.
Samuel PhilippeAnd I can now look back with rightful satisfaction at the progress I have made.
Samuel PhilippeOh... you who caused me suffering on Earth...
Samuel PhilippeYou who were harsh and unkind to me...
Samuel PhilippeYou who humiliated me and filled my cup with bitterness...
Samuel PhilippeYou whose betrayal often reduced me to severe hardship...
Samuel PhilippeI not only forgive you...
Samuel PhilippeI thank you for everything you did.
Samuel PhilippeYou little realized that while trying to harm me, you were actually doing me great good.
Samuel PhilippeI owe much of my present happiness to you.
Samuel PhilippeBecause you gave me the opportunity to forgive... and to return good for evil.
Samuel PhilippeGod placed you in my path in order to test my patience.
Samuel PhilippeAnd to exercise me in the most difficult form of charity... the love of one’s enemies.
Samuel PhilippeBut don't be impatient with this side discussion.
Samuel PhilippeI now return to the questions you asked me.
Samuel PhilippeAlthough I suffered terribly during my final illness, I experienced no death struggle.
Samuel PhilippeDeath came upon me like sleep.
Samuel PhilippeThere was no effort... no shock.
Samuel PhilippeBecause I had no fear of the future, I did not cling to life on Earth.
Samuel PhilippeSo, I had no need to struggle against the separation from the body.
Samuel PhilippeThe separation occurred without effort, without pain... and even without my awareness.
Samuel PhilippeI don't know how long this kind of sleep lasted.
Samuel PhilippeBut it lasted only a short time.
Samuel PhilippeMy awakening was calm and delightful compared to my previous condition.
Samuel PhilippeI no longer felt pain.
Samuel PhilippeAnd I rejoiced in my freedom.
Samuel PhilippeI wanted to rise and walk.
Samuel PhilippeBut a pleasant heaviness held me motionless.
Samuel PhilippeIt was not unpleasant at all.
Samuel PhilippeOn the contrary... it felt soothing.
Samuel PhilippeI surrendered myself to it with a kind of enjoyment.
Samuel PhilippeI did not yet try to understand my situation.
Samuel PhilippeYet I did not doubt that I had left the Earth.
Samuel PhilippeEverything around me seemed dreamlike.
Samuel PhilippeI saw my wife and several friends kneeling in the room and weeping.
Samuel PhilippeI said to myself that they probably believed I was dead.
Samuel PhilippeI wanted to tell them they were mistaken.
Samuel PhilippeBut I could not speak a single word.
Samuel PhilippeFrom this, I concluded that I truly must be dreaming.
Samuel PhilippeThis impression became even stronger because I saw myself surrounded by several people I had loved who had long since died.
Samuel PhilippeI also saw others whom I did not recognize at first.
Samuel PhilippeThey seemed to be watching over me and waiting for me to awaken.
Samuel PhilippeThis state alternated between moments of clarity and moments of sleep-like unconsciousness.
Samuel PhilippeI would regain awareness of myself... and then lose it again.
Samuel PhilippeGradually, my thoughts became clearer.
Samuel PhilippeThe light I had first seen through a kind of fog became brighter.
Samuel PhilippeLittle by little, I recovered full awareness.
Samuel PhilippeThen I understood that I no longer belonged to the earthly world.
Samuel PhilippeIf I had not known Spiritism, this illusion would probably have lasted much longer.
Samuel PhilippeMy physical body had not yet been buried.
Samuel PhilippeI looked upon it with a kind of sympathetic contempt.
Samuel PhilippeI congratulated myself on being rid of it.
Samuel PhilippeI was so happy to be free.
Samuel PhilippeI breathed easily, like someone escaping from a foul and suffocating atmosphere.
Samuel PhilippeAn impossible-to-describe happiness filled my entire being.
Samuel PhilippeThe presence of those I had once loved filled me with joy.
Samuel PhilippeI was not at all surprised to see them.
Samuel PhilippeIt seemed perfectly natural.
Samuel PhilippeIt felt as though I had simply found them again after a long journey.
Samuel PhilippeOne thing greatly surprised me at first.
Samuel PhilippeWe understood one another without speaking.
Samuel PhilippeOur thoughts were communicated instantly through a kind of spiritual connection.
Samuel PhilippeStill, I was not yet completely freed from earthly ideas.
Samuel PhilippeThe memory of everything I had suffered returned from time to time to my mind.
Samuel PhilippeIt seemed to happen so that I would appreciate even more the happiness of my new condition.
Samuel PhilippeI had suffered greatly physically.
Samuel PhilippeBut I had suffered even more emotionally.
Samuel PhilippeI had been the target of hostility.
Samuel PhilippeI had endured countless worries and anxieties that sometimes torment us more than serious misfortunes because they keep us in constant uneasiness.
Samuel PhilippeThe impression left by those worries had not completely disappeared.
Samuel PhilippeAt times, I asked myself whether I was truly free from them.
Samuel PhilippeSometimes it seemed as though I still heard certain unpleasant voices.
Samuel PhilippeI feared the return of the troubles that had once tormented me so often.
Samuel PhilippeIn spite of myself, I trembled.
Samuel PhilippeI almost touched myself to make certain I was not dreaming.
Samuel PhilippeAnd when I finally became certain that I was truly freed from the troubles of life on Earth, it felt as though an enormous burden had been lifted from me.
Samuel Philippe“So it is really true,” I exclaimed.
Samuel Philippe“I'm finally delivered from the worries that torment human life!”
Samuel PhilippeAnd I thanked God with the deepest thankfulness for this freedom.
Samuel PhilippeI felt like a poor man who suddenly inherits immense wealth but at first can't believe the change in his condition and still fears returning to poverty.
Samuel PhilippeAh... if people could truly understand the nature of the future life...
Samuel PhilippeWhat strength and courage they would gain during hardship from the certainty of its reality!
Samuel PhilippeWhat efforts they would make while on Earth to secure the happiness God has prepared for His obedient children!
Samuel PhilippeThey would then understand how worthless earthly pleasures truly are compared to the joys of the future life... joys to which they give so little thought.
AllanHas the spirit world... which now seems so new to you and beside which our world appears so unimportant... caused you to forget the family and friends you left behind on Earth?
Samuel PhilippeIf I could forget them, I would be undeserving of the happiness I now enjoy.
Samuel PhilippeGod does not reward selfishness.
Samuel PhilippeHe punishes it.
Samuel PhilippeThe world where I now live may make me unconcerned with earthly things...
Samuel PhilippeBut not with the spirits still living on Earth.
Samuel PhilippeOnly among human beings do the fortunate forget those who suffer.
Samuel PhilippeI often return to visit those with whom I was connected during life on Earth.
Samuel PhilippeI rejoice in their affectionate remembrance of me.
Samuel PhilippeTheir thoughts attract me toward them.
Samuel PhilippeI join them when they gather together.
Samuel PhilippeI share their joys and I grieve at their sorrows.
Samuel PhilippeBut my sympathy is not the anxious suffering of human sadness...
Samuel PhilippeBecause I know their troubles are temporary and ultimately for their own good.
Samuel PhilippeI rejoice in knowing that they too will someday arrive in this happy place where suffering is unknown.
Samuel PhilippeAbove all, I devote myself to helping them become deserving of this place.
Samuel PhilippeBy every means in my power, I try to inspire good thoughts within them.
Samuel PhilippeAnd especially, I try to strengthen them in acceptance of the Divine will.
Samuel PhilippeMy greatest sorrow is seeing them delay their own happiness through lack of courage, through complaining, through doubting the future, or through wrong actions.
Samuel PhilippeI try to turn them away from the wrong path.
Samuel PhilippeIf I succeed, it brings great joy to me and to all our friends here.
Samuel PhilippeAnd if I fail, I sadly say to myself:
Samuel Philippe“This is another delay for them.”
Samuel PhilippeBut I comfort myself with the thought that it is not forever.
Samuel PhilippeIn time... they will all reach the goal.