CHAPTER VII.
1. Who shall tell the story of the Gods of heaven! Their mighty kingdoms, overspreading he whole earth! Hundreds and hundreds, and thousands! Their libraries of records of valorous and holy deeds! A council chamber of half a million souls! Hundreds of departments; thousands! Here a board to select young students to the colleges of messengers. Another board to select students to the colleges of arts. Another to select students to mathematics. Another for prophecy. Another for great learning. Another for factories. Another for compounding and dissolving elements. Then come the departments of the cosmogony of the stars; then, of the ethereal worlds; then, the roadways of the firmament; then, a'ji and ji'ya, and nebulae; then, se'mu; then hi'dan and dan; then, the dawn of dan; then, histories of the heavens far and near; then, genealogy of thousands of Orian Chiefs; the creation of mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. Yea, but to enumerate the half of what cometh before a God and his council would itself fill a book.
2. Who, then, O Jehovih, shall venture to tell the labor and wisdom of Thy etherean Gods! How shall the second resurrection give up its mysteries? Shall Thy recorder follow the young student for messenger, and disclose the training put upon him? How, like a carrier dove, he is taught to go from place to place, but holding the message in his head? Then follow the student in another department, and make a record of how he is taught? And of the multitude of questions that come before the Council from far-off places. Then the rites and ceremonies, and the unending variety and magnificence of the music. Can a man describe a million men and women and children? A hundred millions! A thousand millions! Five thousand millions! Who hath seen so great a man, to do this! And yet this is but Thy lower heaven, O Jehovih!
3. A strange voice riseth up from the earth, saying: Have they anything to do in heaven? O ye Gods! And one half of the earth-born coming hither in infancy! And the countless millions who know little more than the beasts of the field! To be falsely taught that these unfortunates would skip off to paradise and possess great learning in the hour of death!
4. O that their understanding could be opened up to Thy kingdoms, Thou All-Extending Creator! That their eyes could look upon the greatness of even Thy lower heaven! To behold a thousand departments reaching as wide as the earth! And then the hundreds of thousands of branch departments, of hundreds of grades, adapted to every soul that riseth up from the earth.
5. O that they could look into the dark places in atmospherea! That they could see a million souls, plunged in chaos by terrible war! Crazed spirits, wild and battling! Not knowing they are dead! The ceaseless toil of a million nurses and physicians, laboring day and night with them! O the darkness upon them! O the glory of Thy exalted ones! Who is there, having seen the magnificence of Thy glories, will not bestir himself every moment to lift up his brother and point the way to Thy throne?
6. O that they could see Thy swift Gods of dawn! How they hear a hundred tongues at one time, and frame answers for all of them, and, by a motion of the hand, dispatch messengers to fulfill the same in words! How they select officers, to know a hundred at a glance, and know where to place them; that every one shall fit his place! Who is there, O Father, can frame into words the proceedings of heaven, so that mortals can comprehend even a fraction of Thy great glories!
7. Shall a man light a candle and say it representeth the sun? How, then, shall they find the affairs of mortals comparable to Thy kingdoms? O, that they knew the meaning of the difference betwixt All Light and the darkness of man's judgment.
8. O that they knew Thee, Thou Central Sun of All Light! They have put away Thy Person, and they go in any direction. Thy Great Gods are but myths to them, because of the darkness of their souls. Behold, they look for a small man with a large sword! The power of great wisdom they know not.
9. That they could behold the coming and going of thousands of messengers, from far-off kingdoms, before the throne of Thy God! How he hath answered their matters suddenly! And the while heeded the voices of a thousand marshals! O that man knew the glory of Order! The power of Harmony!
10. They have seen a clock with a hundred wheels, and the eye of its maker overseeing its every part in motion, and they call it wonderful! But how can they know Thy Councils, O Jehovih? Thy millions? And Thy God on his throne, mantled in Thy Light, overseeing a whole heaven! What majesty of words can make mortals comprehend His wisdom, and power, and great labors!
CHAPTER VIII.
1. Thus Osire established Vibhraj, the resplendent heaven, with a thousand and eight hundred sub-kingdoms, in atmospherea, all under the commandments of the central kingdom. And then he established the roadways between them, and appointed seven hundred thousand messengers. After that he ordained proper officers for intercommunion; and the several sub-kingdoms established their places of learning and places of labor; their hospitals and nurseries, and their innumerable asaphs, the receivers of es'yans, the newborn spirits of the dead of earth.
2. Osire said: Behold, there is order in heaven. Now will I appoint a God to hold dominion two hundred years. For whilst the dawn of dan yet remaineth, I will assist him. Let the examiners search, then, amongst my hosts, from such as sprang from the earth, such one as standeth clear on the record, and chief in rank.
3. So the examiners searched; and after thirty days, they selected Konas; and when Osire was informed, he sent a thousand of his own attendants, in an otevan, and they brought Konas to Vibhraj, to Jehovih's throne. Osire said:
4. Greeting, in the name of the Father! Thou art chosen above all others; and, after the dawn of dan is ended, thou shalt be God of heaven and earth for two hundred years. Before the ascent of my hosts and of myself, behold, I will crown thee. Till then, thou shalt sit on my throne, and fill my place whilst I am absent.
5. I have now restored order in heaven, having given all the inhabitants a single purpose in concert, whereby their resurrection is surely founded. Now will I go down to the false Lords' kingdoms, on the earth, and to the mortal kings and queens, and restore order there also.
6. Konas said: Thy will and Jehovih's be done! I am exalted and rejoiced in what is bestowed upon me. Make me strong and wise, O Jehovih, that I may glorify Thy kingdoms!
7. So, after due preparation, Osire departed privately, taking with him one hundred thousand attendants, going down to the earth and to the false Lords' kingdoms, in the cities and temples of mortals.
8. Seven days Osire spent traveling round about the earth, visiting angels and mortals, but telling none who he was, or what was his object; and then he halted his otevan, which had been built for the purpose, in the regions of the mountains of We-ont-ka-woh, in Western Jaffeth. He said:
9. We-ont-ka-woh shall be my headquarters for a season. Here, then, will I found the first Lord's kingdom for mortals; and inasmuch as mortals have made an idol of Apollo, so will I cast down Apollo, and make them know that I, Osire, am Lord of the earth. Then spake We'taing, saying:
10. Behold the glory of Jehovih from the first! In our journey around the earth, we have found the I'hins not idolaters, but still worshippers of the Great Spirit, Jehovih. But as to the half-breeds, who can understand them? They believe nothing; they believe everything. They ask the idol for rain, and for dry weather! For strength to slay the druks; for flesh to eat, and for famine to be visited on their enemies.
11. They are as living prey for druj to feast on; they invite the darkest of all evil. And to do their wills in return, the druj, the evil spirits, busy themselves inoculating the air with poison to kill their enemies.
12. Osire said: With the I'hins we have little to do; but as to the Ghans and the I'huans, they shall be converted into disbelievers of all spirits, save two, Jehovih and satan.
13. To accomplish which end, I will give them three figures: The signs of seasons,2 which shall represent the Creator in all the parts of the living; the sign of the sun, with motion and all life coming forth; and the hand of man.
2 Zodiac is called, sometimes, the signs of the seasons. The Osirian religion was really the directing of man's attention to the power and grandeur of corporeal worlds. In other words, the God Osire's labor was to call mortals away from idol worship and make them scientists.
CHAPTER IX.
1. Through Osire, Jehovih said:
2. I created man with a corporeal life, that he might learn corporeal things; but behold, the I'huans have lost all energy to acquire earthly knowledge, depending on their familiar spirits for information on everything. Thereby wasting their mortal lives in non-improvement. So that when they die, and enter heaven, they are easily made slaves of by evil spirits.
3. Better were it for them had they no knowledge of spirit life, that they might put to service the talents I created within them. See to this matter, O My sons and Daughters; for their desire for the presence of the spirits of the dead will draw fetals upon themselves, and they will go down in darkness, like the ancients.
4. The Voice departed, and then Osire said: Hear me, O brothers, O sisters; this is my commandment upon you, and to you to render unto your successors after such time as I shall call you for the resurrection:
5. Possess ye the temples and oracles, where the familiar spirits speak; neither suffer ye familiars to come more to kings, nor queens, nor governors, nor to leaders nor rulers of men; but take ye possession of all such, and answer ye the corporeans with corporean knowledge only.
6. And that ye may be as a unit unto mortals, give ye all the same name, even Jehovih, through His Son, Osire. For when ye answer at the oracle, or in the altar or temple, they will ask who the spirit is; and ye shall say: Osire, Son of Jehovih; doing this in my name and the Father's.
7. And when ye speak by entrancement, through the seers and prophets, also assert the same thing. And they will ask: Why has the Son of Jehovih come to us? And ye shall say:
8. Because ye are an idolatrous people, worshipping before stone and wood; whereby evil spirits take advantage of you, and rule you to your own hurt.
9. And they will reason amongst themselves, saying: How know we not, then, that thou thyself be not an evil spirit? And ye shall say: It is well that ye ask this, for I declare unto you, ye shall not worship Osire, but only Jehovih, the Creator. This doctrine, only, is safe.
10. Again they will say: Who is satan and his attendants? Ye shall answer: Whoever professeth any name save the Great Spirit, is of satan, which pertaineth to self.
11. Now whilst ye are thus reasoning with them, certain ones in the temples will be worked by the familiar spirits, writhing and twisting, and ye shall say to the next akin: Behold, I will tell thee how to cast out the evil spirit. Thou shalt say: I charge thee, in the name of Jehovih, to depart!
12. It shall come to pass they will do this, and at the time they use the words: In the name of Jehovih, depart! ye shall drive hence the familiars, thus proving the power of Jehovih greater than all spirits.
13. But that this matter may spread rapidly, and be valued highly, impart the name of the Great Spirit, in secret, not suffering them to speak it aloud. Choose ye, therefore, certain mortals, and ordain them through the king, and their labor shall be to cast out evil spirits.
14. It will come to pass in many places where ye dispossess the false Lords and their confederates, these evil spirits will inoculate the cattle and beasts of burden with poison, and they will die; and the evil spirits will show themselves to the dogs, and cause them to howl; and the evil spirits will obsess the swine, which are easily influenced, and the swine will appear drunk and foolish. All of which things ye shall prophesy to mortals beforehand, thereby attesting the wisdom of the Great Spirit.
15. After these things are accomplished, mortals will say further: Behold, thou Son of Jehovih, erst thou came, Apollo told us when to plant, and when to reap; when to bring the male and female cattle together; but now that we have put him aside, what shall we do? And ye shall answer them:
16. Come in the star-light, and I will give you the signs, that ye may know these things yourselves. And where ye speak in the oracle, or by entrancement, ye shall point out to them certain stars, and give them the names thereof; and certain groups of stars, with their names, also; and ye shall show them the travel of the sun, north and south, and give them a tablet of onk (zodiac), divided into twelve groups, with twelve lines coming from the sun.
17. And ye shall raise up priests by inspiration, and by entrancement, and through them illustrate the position of the sun in the signs of the zodiac (onk). And the priests shall explain these things to the unlearned, that they may comprehend of their own knowledge.
18. When these things are accomplished, ye shall inspire the I'huans to go to the I'hins and ask to be circumcised unto Jehovih; and the I'hins, also being under inspiration, will confess them and bestow them with the sign.
