The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 130 -
ASMAHAEL'S SUCCESSFUL FATHERLY CALL TO THE MIDNIGHTCHILDREN
And Asmahael left the whole party, rushing away like a flash of lightning.
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When he had vanished from their sight, every one of them began to praise the great God. But the three asked Adam:
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"O dear, exalted father! Look, the words of this young man who has just rushed away have on the one hand been most comforting, but on the other hand their incomprehensible sublimity was like a fire, which could set the whole earth alight. O tell us, who and whence this man is, for we have never as yet heard such words. Truly, this man cannot possibly be from this earth.
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"If possible, O father, do not leave us in this uncertainty. Your will! Amen."
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And Adam replied: "O children, do ponder on this; He has as much as told you this Himself! To learn more, wait for Him. Amen."
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The three thanked Adam and began to ponder on this question, but could not find an answer to satisfy their hearts. One suggested the angel who in the land of Euehip after the flight handed the flaming sword to Abel, the other one thought of Abel's spirit and the third one could not make up his mind which theory to join. And so gradually a great silence had set in among all present, partly because they were fully occupied with their own thoughts, partly expectantly listening for Asmahael's call. However, this expectation was quite futile, for Asmahael knew well what and how to do it and did not have to shout, but only let His mighty Word sound in the hearts of those who were hiding in fear. And they clearly perceived this glorious call within them, so that not one of them remained behind and they all, old and young, hurried to the great inner Caller and everyone of them recognized Him as the One Who had secretly called them in their hearts.
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Within three minutes Asmahael was surrounded by seven hundred people whom He blessed visibly with His hand and then led to Adam.
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When Adam with the other children saw the immense crowd led by Asmahael approach, he was speechless and unable to utter a single word. (9th August 1841)
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Even to Enoch this extraordinary expedition appeared so miraculous that he was overwhelmed. And he said to himself: "But so many children in the midnight-region!
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"If not more than three-quarters of them were newly created, I do not know what to think Either I am dreaming or I am seeing each one a hundredfold. For here are humans like the sand in the sea and the grass on the surface of the earth!
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"O Asmahael, who can ever comprehend You. You are infinite in every one of Your words and Your breath moves the world, whereas mine does only an infinitesimal quantity of motes over the surface of my helpless hand. You gaze upon the sun and all the shining stars and they tremble from too incomprehensibly sublime awe, gratefully beaming the exalted, although only faint, reflection of the infinite mildness of Your eyes down to the small earth. And Your ears perceive - as mine do a close thunder already the desires and slightest wishes of those hazy beings that only in future new creations may go forth from You. And You perceive the breath of the most invisible, tiniest wheel-animalcule in the most distant infinite space, whereas my ear hardly perceives the raging of a hurricane. But what a difference in the perception as such! To You everything is purest harmony - to me a confounded chaos.
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'To You the splashing sound of some rippling spring is a word of deep meaning. You understand the fluttering of the grass, and the lament of a falling leaf is perceived by Your ear.
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"You hear the rushing wind's great hymn of praise and that of the raging sea does not remain unknown to You. And yet you take care of the little worm in the dust as if You heard nothing but the dusty little worm's weak moan.
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"O Asmahael, You great, sublime, holiest, most loving and above all mightiest God and Lord! A finite spirit will never comprehend You and everyone wishing to fathom You will lose himself in the eternal night of Your might. Even a dewdrop of water will swallow him up into its countless bottomless depths and the one swallowed will not ever be able to retrieve himself in the endless ocean of a tiny dewdrop and its countless wonders.
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"Therefore I shall all my life no longer explore anything, but only love You, O my God, and at every wise step confess my nothingness in all love and humility and say: Thus far and no further!' For my every heartbeat shall be subject to Your will For who is alive except You, being the very life Yourself?
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"I only live insofar as I live loving You; and for me nothing is alive except You. Or are not all things to me as if dead? Or is not the most lifeless stone to You more alive than is to me the liveliest bird? For the stone is not mute for You; but what is for me the chirping of a lively cricket?
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"Thus to the living everything is alive and to the dead everything dead. And now thus far and no further! Amen."