Allan Kardec-THE Spirit's Book_ The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine (1989)

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ALLAN KARDEC
We must not lose sight of the fact that a spirit, after the death of his body. is not suddenly transformed. If
his life have been reprehensible, it has been so because he was imperfect. But death does not render him
perfect all at once he may in his wrong-doing, his false ideas, his prejudices, until he has become
enlightened by study, reflection, and suffering.
998. Is expiation accomplished in the corporeal state, or in the spirit-state?
"Expiation is accomplished during the corporeal existence, through the trials to which the
spirit is subjected; and, in the spirit-state, through the moral sufferings belonging to the
spirit's state of inferiority."
999. Does sincere repentance during the earthly life suffice to efface the faults of that life,
and to restore the wrong-doer to the favour of God?
"Repentance helps forward the amelioration of the spirit, but all wrongdoing has to be
expiated."
- That being the case, if a criminal should say, "Since I must necessarily expiate my past, I
have no need to repent," what effect would it have upon him?
"If he harden himself in the thought of evil. his expiation will be longer and more painful."
1000. Can we, in the present life, redeem our faults?
"Yes, by making reparation for them. But do not suppose that you can redeem them by a few
trifling privations, or by giving, after your death, what you can no longer make use of. God
does not value a sterile repentance, a mere smiting of the breast, easily done. The loss of a
little finger in doing good to others effaces more wrong doing than any amount of self-torture
undergone solely with a view to one's own interest. (726.)
"Evil can only be atoned for by good; and attempts at reparation are valueless if they touch
neither a man's pride nor his worldly interests.
"How can his rehabilitation be subserved by the restitution of ill-gotten wealth after his death,
when it has become useless to him, and when he has already profited by it ?
"What benefit can he derive from the privation of a few futile enjoyments and of a few
superfluities, if the wrong he has done to others is not undone ?
"What, in truth, is the use of his humbling himself before God, if he keeps up his pride before
men?" (720, 721.)