The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 45 -
ADAM BLESSES HIS CHILDREN
And behold, hardly a hundred heartbeats had passed when the two emissaries returned with food and drink, accompanied by the weeping Jeha. They entered Adam's hut with reverence and handed what they had brought respectfully to Seth, as the most worthy, that he might, kneeling before Adam and Eve, give them joyfully and with the greatest filial love what they had asked for.
2
When Adam saw the great willingness and love of his children, he raised his eyes to heaven, before he had put a morsel in his mouth, and said: "O You great, best and super holy Father, how great must Your love for us weak, disobedient men be when the smallest spark of this Your boundless love in my descendants and Your children is already shining so mildly and gloriously upon me, the first, weak man of the earth! O Father, look graciously down from Your holy height upon Your weak, fallen son whose fall has brought about the fall of all his descendants and bless in Your kindness the loving gift of my descendants and Your dear children that it may strengthen me and my dear wife in our constant remorse about our disobedience to You, O most holy, best and most loving Father! Bless also Your dear children and let it graciously happen that Your holy name be always praised and glorified! Amen."
3
After these words, Adam took the food he had been given and happily enjoyed it with Eve, full of gratitude towards Me and kind thoughts for his children. But the children silently thanked Me in their hearts for the great grace that I had deemed them worthy of now caring with great joy for their parents. Behold, these were dear children to Me of which kind there are nowadays only few on the totally depraved earth. They were truly children after My heart! If there were many such children I would not have to be such a hidden Father to them as I now must, unfortunately, be to many, that they may not perish completely in their stubborn blindness.
4
And when Adam and Eve had satisfied their hunger in the presence of the children still weeping for love, Adam rose and thanked Me with a deeply moved heart, then turned to his children and said with great kind· ness and deep feeling in his voice: "May God's blessing as well as my blessing be always with you and all your descendants. And as long as the earth will remain earth shall your now so highly blessed lineage continue till the end of all time; and with those from your direct line this my blessing out of God, our most holy Father, shall always be evident in all their dealings. And one day this my blessing upon you shall become visible as a newly rising sun of love and grace out of God the Father over all the nations of the earth who will then behold the great glory of God, descending in supreme love and meekness as a Life of all life. Amen. - And now go, dear children, and strengthen and refresh yourselves with God's and my blessing! Amen."
5
Then Seth rose and said: "O you dear father and you lovely mother! It would not be right if when you have been hungry even for only half a day we should not out of our great love share your undeserved discomfort for which we are responsible as we have come to you only so late. Therefore, let us because of our great love for you, and through you for God, take no food today so that we may praise and glorify God more purely and worthily in our very happy emptiness. O father, do graciously accept this little just sacrifice from us and instead allow your grandson Enoch to speak about the love of God before you and us that his mouth may be hallowed through your blessing, too, as it was hallowed before us by God through your deceased son Abel. O father, do graciously accept my pious request! Amen."
6
When Adam heard this he was moved to tears and said: "O children, you are doing more than I asked of you. You shall never be limited in all that is good. Do what you wish, yet not in my honor but always for the glory of God, and do not forget your father in his great distress and always remember the weakness of your mother.
7
"And you, dear Enoch, who through my beloved Abel were blessed by God to be a speaker and preacher of love, be blessed also by me in all your descendants, and may from your lineage arise a great preacher for all the nations of the earth who with the word of life eternal shall proclaim the Kingdom of God to all men. Amen. - And now speak with your blessed tongue! Amen."
8
Having received this exalted encouragement Enoch became exceedingly happy and cheerful. He first thanked Me in his heart, then he prostrated himself before Adam, kissed his feet and the garment of Eve and implored the original progenitor to place his blessing fatherly hands on his head so that through this act his weak tongue might become worthy of uttering words of love before the ears which once had heard the words from the mouth of eternal Love Itself, yes, before and to the hallowed ears which have heard God's voice so often.
9
After complying with Enoch's request, Adam said to him: "Dear Enoch! You have formulated your request well and pleasing to God and me. And it is as you have said. But there is one thing I must add which would not have been proper for you to think, let alone say, namely, the ears before and to which God's voice once spoke in vain in its supreme love.
10
"Behold, dear Enoch, I am entitled, as is each one of you, to confess my own mistakes openly and, thus, to humble myself before God and the earth. But woe betide him who should disparage the name of his brother and take away the honor God Himself has given him. Such honor is everyone's possession received from God and no one has the right to attack such a hallowed possession of another with his tongue or hand. However, everyone has the right to humble himself before God and the earth, that is, before his adult brothers, but not before the minors that they may not become proud or take offence in any way.
11
"Let this be a good lesson to all of you and a great comfort to me enabling me to hear God's words from the blessed mouth of Enoch. For it is quite a different thing if one brother speaks to the other about the earth, the moon, the sun and all the stars -for these are things of the world, all created for my sake and yours - and a different thing again if a brother speaks to the other words out of God about the things which are God's. These things can and shall no one hear who has not first humbled himself before the judging holiness of God.
12
"If someone thought that the brother spoke out of himself and not out of God when his tongue had been blessed, that one would pass judgment on himself in his self-conceit imagining that he, too, was good enough and God could, and would, speak through anyone's mouth, and it did not have to be just that of Enoch. But I, the physical father of all of you and procreator of your soul out of God, tell you that this is not so. Look at the flowers in the field. Has not each one a different shape, color, fragrance and use, and the noblest of all is only the rose with its glorious fragrance and its dew strengthening every weak eye if the heart was first refreshed through the fragrance? And when you gaze at the countless stars in the firmament you will find, if you observe them closely, that not two of them have the same light. But among all the stars that do not leave their community there is only one that you call the star of Abel and which radiates like a bright dewdrop in the morning sun. It does not make any difference to God whether He looks after a mote or a sun or whether he provides for a gnat or a mammoth, for when someone possesses much he can give great and little things with the same love. To the one who needs much he gives much and a small gift to the one who needs only little. He can distribute a variety of gifts, to one this and to the other that and, thus, something different to everyone. Enoch was given love, a blessed tongue and a well-enlightened heart. Therefore he shall also give what he has received. And because the love of God became his share, he shall pass on this love like the rose that gives what it has received and no one doubts that it received it from God since it is a good gift and of benefit to our senses. Who will ever doubt where Enoch's gift is from when his tongue trembles with the love of God?
13
"So speak, Enoch, and strengthen us, your fathers, with the superabundance of your grace out of God! Amen."