CHAPTER IV.
1. Man said: What, then, shall I believe? If great learning have not proven anything real; if science is based on falsehood, and if there be no natural laws, shall I not give up my judgment? Whatever is at variance with my judgment, shall I not turn away from it?
2. It hath been said: The soul of man never dieth. No one can know this, save Jehovih.
3. It hath been said: Jehovih is a person. No one can know this, for His magnitude is incomprehensible.
4. Is the soul of man made of oxygen or hydrogen? Give me light that is real. I can say of what man's mortal body is made.
5. Jehovih said: My divisions are not as man's divisions. Behold, I create one thing within another. Neither space, nor place, nor time, nor eternity standeth in My way. The soul is es.
6. Man inquired: If the dwelling-place for the spirits of the dead be up in the firmament, how is it created? What resteth it upon?
7. And how dwelleth the soul of man in heaven? If the es-man hath feet and legs, how doth he walk?
8. Hath his arms changed into wings? Or rideth he on the lightnings?
9. God said: Already goeth thy soul thitherward, but it can not take thy body with it. Thy corporeal judgment can not cope with spiritual things.
10. As thought traveleth, so is it with the spirit of the dead. When thou hast quit thy corporeal body, behold thy spirit will be free; whithersoever thou desirest to go thou shalt go.
11. Nevertheless thou shalt go only as thought goeth. And when thou hast arrived at the place, thou shalt fashion, from the surroundings, thine own form, hands and arms, and feet and legs, perfectly.
12. The Gods build not only themselves, but plateaux for the inhabitation of millions and millions of other souls risen from the earth.
13. Man said: Alas, me! Why was I born in darkness?
14. Why was I not created knowing all things from my youth up?
15. Why did not the Creator send His angels with me every day, to satisfy my craving for light from the Almighty?
16. Kosmon answered: Hadst thou not craved for light, thou hadst not been delighted to receive light. Hadst thou been created with knowledge, thou couldst not be an acquirer of knowledge.
17. Had the Creator given thee angels to be forever giving thee light, then they would be slaves.
18. Liberty is the boon of men and angels; the desire for liberty causeth the soul of man to come out of darkness.
19. Whoso feeleth that he hath no need of exertion, groweth not in spirit. He hath no honor on the earth or in the heavens thereof.
20. Man said: This is my comfort. Man nowadays is not so foolish as the ancients.
21. They worshipped before idols of stone and wood.
22. They built temples and pyramids so costly that they ruined themselves.
23. Seffas said: O vain man! In the day thou abusest the ancients, thou sendest thy son to college, and enforcest him to study the ancients.
24. Thy standing armies hold the nations of the earth in misery greater than did the temples and pyramids. And as for drunkenness and dissolute habits, and for selfishness, thou art worse than the ancients.
25. God said: O man, turn thou from the dead past; learn from the Ever Living Present!
26. What is thy wisdom for the raising up of the poor and the distressed, more than was that of the ancients?
27. Is it better for thee to hold up a book and say: Behold a most sacred and holy book! than for the ancients to say: Behold a sacred and holy temple!
28. Seffas said: Consider the established things; in one age one thing; in another age another thing.
29. To make man break away from all the past, and live by the Light of the Ever Present, is this not the wisest labor?
CHAPTER V.
1. Jehovih said: In the time I created life on the earth, and in the waters, and in the air above the earth; I brought the earth into hyarti for a thousand years.
2. And the earth gave out light because of the darkness of the heavenly forests whither I had brought her.
3. Man said: To know the beginning of things; what greater delight than this?
4. To know when the earth was made; and how the living were created!
5. The thousands of millions of kinds and species!
6. God said: Was not this answered unto thee? According to the light that man was capable of receiving, so was he answered.
7. Man inquired: But why was not the truth told? Why the six days? And why the rib?
8. God said: That which man can accept, and is good for him, is given unto him. That which man can not comprehend, can not be revealed to him.
9. Behold, even now, as hath been shown, thou usest false symbols to illustrate the number ten.
10. Wouldst thou make man worship angels because they took on forms by his side?
11. Then thou wouldst lose influence over him, and angels would be his guides.
12. All teaching shall be to make man comprehend the Almighty's dominion upon man.
13. Symbols and images that do this, are true lights, though false in fact.
14. Man said: How shall man find light, knowledge, wisdom, truth? Is there no all teacher? Learning is void, because based on false grounds? The senses are void, because they themselves are perishable and imperfect?
15. The insane man knoweth not his insanity. May not any man be also insane, and know it not?
16. Where shall man find a true standing point to judge from?
17. Uz said: All thou seest and hearest, O man, are but transient and delusive. Even thine own corporeal senses change every day.
18. To-day thou triest to raise up thy son in a certain way; but when thou art old, thou wilt say: Alas, I taught him differently from what I would now.
19. Man inquired: Is this not then the best course, to devote myself wholly to doing good?
20. Es answered: Who shall tell thee what doing good is? Knowest thou?
21. Man said: To provide the best of everything for my wife, and for my sons and daughters, and contribute to the poor.
22. Es said: Hadst thou created man, thou hadst given him hair or feathers and a cushion for his head?
23. Bethink thee, then. Give thou one thing too much to thy wife and sons and daughters, thereby preventing the calling out of their own talents, and, alas, thy works will be bad instead of good.
24. Contribute to the poor one fraction too much, and thou injure instead of doing good.
25. Give him one fraction too little, and thou shalt rebuke thyself.
26. Man inquired: What, then, are good works? Shall I preach and pray for others?
27. God said: Man, thou shalt judge thyself as to what thou shalt do.
28. Within every man's soul, Jehovih hath provided a judge that will soon or late become triumphant in power.
29. Man said: Hear me: I am tired of reason and argument.
30. Now will I covenant with Jehovih. He only shall answer me; He will give me light:
31. To Thee, O Jehovih, I commit myself, to be Thine forever.
32. To serve Thee by doing nothing for mine own selfish ends; but by doing the best I can for others, all my days.
33. My flesh body will I baptize every day in remembrance of Thee; for my body is Thine, and I will keep it clean and pure before Thee.
34. Neither will I suffer my spiritual body to be injured by wicked thoughts or passions of lust; for my spirit is Thy gift to me also.
35. Twice every day shall my spirit body be covenanted to Thee, in which times all earthly thoughts shall depart away from me. And whatsoever light Thou bestowest on me, that shall be a guide and ruler over me for the day thereof.
36. In the morning at sunrise will I turn to Thee, that I may be spurred up to swiftness in doing good and in manifesting Thy light in my behavior. And at night before I sleep will I recount my day's labor, that I may see wherein I was short in doing with all my wisdom and strength.
37. Thou, O Jehovih, shalt be my Confessor and Advisor; to Thee will I give praise without ceasing. My prayers and anthems to Thee shall be without number. This do I perceive is the highest of all aspiration.
38. For what better is it for God or the spirits of the dead to tell me a thing than for mortals to tell me? Is not all wisdom necessary to be proved within each and every man? Is it not better that my vision reach up to heaven and see it myself, than to be told of it by the angels?
39. It is wiser for mortals to become pure as angels, than for angels to become impure as mortals. Nay, I will not drag the spirits of the higher heavens down to the earth. If they came and told me, it would be but hearsay testimony at best.
40. I will commune with them and weigh their words, as to whether they be wise and adapted to founding Thy kingdom on earth.
41. Am I not done, O Jehovih? Thou hast sealed up thy kingdoms from me. Henceforth I will neither preach nor hear preaching. Only to labor and to do good, and be in peace within my own soul, and with my neighbors, and to glorify Thee.
42. I will do no more, nor will I multiply words with any one under the sun.
CHAPTER VI.
1. God said: I declare in the name of Jehovih, the Whole. Through Him, and by His hand have I been lifted up. hear me, O mortals! Give ear, O ye spirits of the dead! The Father hath spoken; Him do I reveal; in Him bestow the tree of light.
2. I was in darkness, but am now in light. His presence is upon me. Hearken, then, to my words, and be wise in your lives.
3. Seek not to disprove Him; seek not to prove that these things can not be; seek not to deny His person, nor His spirit. Of such was my bondage. In bitterness of heart was I bound in darkness. Those who deny, those who try to disprove Him, are in darkness.
4. He is the same to-day and forever. The prophets of old found Him; so also can ye. But He cometh not to the denier, nor to the disprover.
5. He who will find His Person must look for Him. He who will hear His Voice must hearken. Then cometh light.
6. All argument is void. There is more wisdom in the song of a bird than in the speech of a philosopher. The first speaketh to the Almighty, proclaiming his glory. The second ploddeth in darkness.
7. By my hand were the ancient libraries burnt, to draw man away from darkness.
8. Kosmon said: What hath great learning found that is valuable?
9. Shall learning, like riches, be acquired for one's own selfish gratification?
10. If a rich man with his horded wealth do little for the resurrection of man, how much less doth the learned man with a head full of knowledge? It neither feedeth nor clotheth the sick and distressed, nor stayeth the debauchery and drunkenness of the great multitude.
11. How shall we class the man of exact science? Where shall we find him? How shall we know that he will not be disproved in time to come?
12. Yesterday it was said, a man can not fast forty days and live; to-day it is proven possible.
13. Yesterday it was said, there is attraction of gravitation betwixt the sun and the earth; to-day it is proven that there is no such thing. That no man can see without eyes or hear without ears, in su'is (clairvoyance and clairaudience); to-day hundreds of thousands know it to be so.
14. Yesterday it was said, thou shalt eat flesh and oil, because they supply certain things for the blood, without which man can not live; to-day it is proven otherwise.
15. Yesterday the physician said: Take thou this, and it will heal thee; to-day the same thing is proven to have no virtue.
16. This only is proven: That man is vain and conceited, desiring to make others believe he is wise when he is not.
17. What healed the sick yesterday, will not to-morrow.
18. Philosophy that was good yesterday, is folly to-day.
19. Religions that were good for the ancients are worthless to-day.
20. Crime and pauperism grow up in the heart of them, even worse than in the regions of the earth where they are not preached.
21. The physicians have not lessened the amount of sickness on the earth.
22. The lawyers have not lessened the rascality of the wicked, or depleted the number of defrauders.
23. The march of Jehovih and His peoples is onward; it is like a tree of light, forever growing, but man heedeth not the growth.
24. Man bindeth his judgment by things that are past; he will not quicken himself to see and understand the All Light.
