The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 107 -
The purpose of the mountains.
Now Marcus asked Me again: "Lord and Master, is it also not remarkable that the highest mountains of which the rounded and pointed tops are generally shone by the sun one hour earlier and thus have also a longer day than the valleys, are covered with eternal snow and ice while in the valleys and plains it becomes in the summer oftentimes unbearably hot? With us in Europe, in the west of our empire, there are Alps which no human eye did ever see without snow and ice while in the plains and in the many valleys between the high Alps it is very warm, yes, even in our Sicily we have a mountain which is from the inside still full of fire. This has to be so because on many places it smokes and steams continuously, and still its highest peak is continually covered with snow. Well now, what is the reason for that?"
2
I said: "Even if I will tell you the true reason, then you still will not understand it, but since you have asked Me now, I surely have to give you the answer.
3
Look, if you place a piece of metal and at the same time a piece of soft wood into the sun, then after a couple of hours you will have warmed up the metal so strongly that you hardly will be able to feel it with your hand, but with the soft wood you hardly will notice any warmth.
4
If you for instance will feel the black and stony shores of the Dead Sea around the midday hour, you will notice that those are practically burning hot, and if you then will feel the water, you will find it cold compared to the shores. Then you can also ask: 'Yes, Lord and Master, how can this actually be? Why are the metal and the black stones so strongly heated up by the rays of the sun while at the same time with the soft wood and especially the water, a special warming up can hardly be perceived?'
5
On this I can - because the preliminary knowledge is lacking to you - only tell you that denser bodies are more capable to absorb the warmth and the light than those that are less dense. And so also the air is a body that in itself has the quality that the lower layers of air that are close to the Earth are denser than high on the mountains because of the pressure of the upper layers which are lying on top of it. And thus, since the layer of air close to the Earth is much denser than high on the mountains and Alps it is therefore also easier to warm up than at great height. Look, this is the very simple, natural and still easiest way for you to understand the reason why it is colder high in the mountains, even if the sun shines longer there, than in the depths and valleys.
6
However, there are of course still other reasons, which you, even if I would mention them to you, would not understand now. But there will be times when men will very clearly discover, calculate and perceive the deeper reasons for such phenomena. But for this reason they will not be closer to the Kingdom of God than you are now, who as very experienced statesmen still do not understand by far what the children of that time will already very well be able to perceive and understand. But such physicists and worldly scientists will often be very far from the Kingdom of God, and if they will search it in the powers of the natural world that are revealed to them, they will hardly find it or not at all. Therefore, search above all in you the true Kingdom of God and its justice. All the other things you will receive at the right time by itself as a free extra gift.
7
But the following you can remember as a good corresponding image. The pointed and round tops of the mountains look like those philosophers who have much intellectual light, but by that they are very conceited, proud and haughty and they look down with contempt to the world that is not learned. Yes, they even feel superior to their equivalent scientists who are maybe in view of their social position not equal to them, but these less highly ranked people surpass them in fruitful learning.
8
And look, those very high mountains are an excellent image of that. The higher a mountain is and the wider the view which someone can have from its highest top, the more unfruitful such a mountain is, and cold and covered with snow and ice. You will for instance not even find one withered little moss plant on the highest top of the Ararat, but on the many lower heights in the vicinity you surely will come across all kinds of moss and other little rock plants, on the still lower parts all kinds of grass and alpine herbs, and still more down already bushes and trees.
9
And this is how it is with all those important philosophers and physicists, particularly when they are besides of that, exalted to a high position by the state because of their scholarship. They are full of self-conceit, full of pride, look down on everything, are therefore cold and insensitive, and have no love except the rigid love for themselves and for their own pride. But because of that, despite their light, which contains no warmth of life, they are also completely unfruitful and serve the head of the state indeed as some kind of show-piece, but practically speaking they are of little or mostly of no use at all, while the lower ranked people are working, and by the practical applied knowledge they are useful for the state, and the still lower ranked people are working even more, and are unquestionably still of much more use for the state and the people.
10
So are the high mountains of a country indeed nice to look at, and when it catches the eye of the traveler, he is amazed about their height, but if someone would ask the economical question what practical use its high peaks have for the country and what kind of fruit they produce, the answer on that will certainly be as bare as the high mountains are themselves.
11
With that I certainly do not mean to say that the high and highest mountains of the Earth are completely useless and purposeless. With regard to the whole Earth they are extremely necessary because they force the atmospheric air, together with the whole Earth to turn around its center during the fixed time of day and night. For otherwise, no creature could exist because of the intensity of the permanent air current. Because here, where we are now, the movement of the Earth around its axis is already so fast that each moment we are moved from west to east by about 2 hours .
12
Now, if the Earth would be completely even and would have no mountains and hills, then the air, which surrounds it, would in a certain way stand still and would not move together with the Earth. But this standing still of the air would still continue to produce the air current, which would even surpass by far the heaviest hurricanes by which, as said, the life and existence of the creatures on the surface of the Earth would be absolutely impossible.
13
But because the Earth, now especially in the region of its middle circle - which consequently is also the circle of the greatest rotation and which the later geologists will call the equator - has mostly in widely large chains also the highest mountains of which the peaks are far reaching above the clouds, they force the air to move continuously around the axis of the Earth, and therefore you cannot notice anything of the very heavy air current. But the fact that the air comes now and then into a current, which is perceivable now this morning as wind, I have already shown you the cause and the reason and I do not need now to speak about that again.
14
Look, this is now the one useful purpose of the high mountains, explained with regard to the whole Earth. But besides that, the high mountains and also their snow and ice have a few other purposes, which will also be discovered by the later physicists. But for you it is still not the time to be initiated into all the secrets of the natural world. And even if I would tell and explain them to you, then you would not perceive them because you lack the necessary preliminary knowledge.
15
I still can tell you, that invisible powers are continuously streaming in and around the Earth which are extremely necessary for the animation of the mineral, plant and animal world to which also man belongs as far as his body is concerned, and those powers are also controlled or guided by the mountains and their vegetation, nature and condition. That is why the inhabitants of the mountains are always healthier and stronger than the inhabitants of the big plains and deep valleys.
16
So this morning I have been a teacher of nature to you, as far as this is for you necessary for the time being, so that you do not have to stay in your old errors. But when the spirit of the full truth and life will become one in you with your soul, then it will guide you further into all wisdom. Did you all understand this well?"