The future life with its happenings and events is always hidden from the blind materialists, but this in itself is a wise provision and the future is never opened to any man unless he has developed his inner or spiritual sight, and this is a provision of God, for if man knew the future he would neglect the present and would not act with the same freedom, because he would be swayed by the thought that if such and such a thing is to happen there is no need to occupy one's self about it, or else he would seek to prevent it. God has willed that it should not be thus in order that each may concur in the accomplishment of the designs of Providence, even of those which He would desire to thwart; and thus you, yourselves, often prepare the way, without your knowing it, for the events that will occur in the course of your life.

The reason why the future is sometimes revealed to certain people by and through those who are clairvoyant is because that in such cases this foreknowledge, instead of hindering the accomplishment of the thing that is to be will facilitate it by inducing the person to whom it is revealed to act in a different way from that in which he would otherwise have acted. And, besides, it is often a trial. The prospect of an event may awaken thoughts more or less virtuous. If a man becomes aware, for instance, that he will succeed to an inheritance which he had not expected he may be tempted by a feeling of cupidity or elation at the prospect of adding to his earthly pleasures by a desire for the death of him to whose fortune he will succeed in order that he may obtain possession of it more speedily; or, on the other hand, this prospect may awaken in him only good and generous thoughts. If the prediction be not fulfilled it is another trial, viz., that of the way in which he will bear the disappointment, but he will none the less have acquired the merit or the blame of the good or bad thoughts awakened in him by his expectation of the event predicted.

The spirits of the Astral Plane know everything. They know whether a man will or will not fail in anything which he begins. Where then is the use of this trial since it can show God nothing that He does not already know in regard to that man?

You may as well ask why God did not create man accomplished, perfect, or why man has to pass through childhood before arriving at an adult age. The aim of trial is not to enlighten God in regard to man's deserts, for God knows exactly what they are, but to leave to man the entire responsibility of his conduct, since he is free to do or not to do. Man having free choice between good and evil, trial serves to bring him under the action of temptation, and thus to give him the merit of resistance; for God, though knowing beforehand whether he will triumph or succumb, cannot, being just, either reward or punish him otherwise than according: to the deeds he has done.

The same principle is practically admitted among men. Whatever may be the qualifications of a candidate for any distinction, whatever may be our confidence of his success, no grade can be conferred on him without his having undergone the prescribed examination, that is to say, without his deserts having been tested by trial, just as a judge only condemns the accused for the crime he has actually committed, and not on the presumption that he could or would commit such- crime. The more you reflect on the consequences that would result from your knowledge of the future the more clearly will you see the wisdom of Providence in hiding it from you. The certainty of your future good fortune would render you inactive; that of coming misfortune would plunge you in discouragement; in both cases your activities would be paralyzed. For this reason the future is only known to man as an end which he is to attain through his own efforts, but without knowing the sequence of events through which he will pass in attaining it. The foreknowledge of all the incidents of his journey would deprive him of his initiative and of the use of his free will: he would let himself be drawn, passively, by the force of events down the slope of circumstances without any exercise of his faculties.

When the success of a matter is certain you no longer busy yourselves about it.