The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 87 -
EVE REPRIMANDS SETH
Seth noticed that the children were secretly talking with each other and thought: "In truth, they are all plagued by doubts and do not know what to do. How I would like to help you if I could! Why has Enoch been silent about this for such a long time?
2
"Probably the poor mother Eve is again secretly suffering mightily and in her heart crying about our foolishness.
3
"How if I quietly asked her how she is feeling?
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"Who knows, maybe the patient sufferer carries a little spark in her heart which, when it enters our darkness, could serve us splendidly?
5
"Therefore, courage! For it could not possibly become worse than it is now when they all seem to sit in darkness worrying, and not a single cooling little dewdrop, neither from the earth nor from the glowing heaven, is falling into our languishing souls!"
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And Seth addressed the mother Eve as follows: "Beloved mother, you seem to be sad. Oh tell me whether some secret sorrow is maybe gnawing at your soul.
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"Behold, Asmahael's tongue has struck all of us with a threefold darkness and we cannot help ourselves as you see. However, what the Lord has made rough, He will surely make even again in due course. Therefore, if some sorrow should oppress you, calm your heart in the love of the Lord. But if you may have some little light concerning the matter that oppresses all of us, do not keep it too deep in your heart, for in a cloudy and dark night even the tiniest spark revives the light-hungry eye of the lost wanderer.
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"O mother, it is I, your beloved son Seth, speaking with you. Open your eyes and heart and let him soon hear about your sorrow and, if at all possible, maybe also share in a shining little spark from above! Amen."
9
And Eve replied to Seth, rather gravely: "Dear son, given to me by God instead of Abel, behold, my withdrawn nature should tell you that the thus withdrawn mother of all men living on earth does not have much reason to let her heart leap with joy, especially when she must notice that even her favorite son approaches her with a sly rather than a sincere heart.
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"Seth, my beloved son, why do you ask me about my well-being when you had only the little spark on your mind?
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"Do you believe that a good-hearted slyness is a virtue of wisdom?
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"O Seth, there you are very wrong! Behold, it is above all openness to speak from one's heart - which is the foundation of all wisdom. Ask for the things you want and flee from what is odious to you that you might be able to love God with a sincere heart, be it secretly or before the entire world, and there will never be evening and midnight in your heart.
13
"Behold, you have been given wisdom; why did you not always walk the straight path?
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"Artful phrases, high-sounding words, are always great pro claimers of one's weakness, whereby one wishes to show the other that one is still very strong, whilst the straight one notices already from a distance that the one who wants to be strong is devious. Therefore, dear Seth, stop deviating, but walk on a straight road before God and the children and you will never experience a lack of light!
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"Keep in mind that when you draw a circle the most distant point of the circumference is also the one closest to the end and to the beginning. But do not make a snail a teacher of the circle, or you would never arrive at the point from which you started!
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"Do understand your old mother, and be at rest in your heart and in God! Amen."
17
These words of Eve thoroughly frightened Seth and he thought: "How strange it is here in the evening region! Every word is an error, any compassion at the wrong time and place. Every better seeming thought still clearly rising in one's heart is nothing but the irregular flight of a moth circling around the flame until the bright flame has destroyed its wings.
18
"My will is an idle volition and is exactly like that in a dream, when one must will and act, secretly compelled by a strange, inscrutable power. My love for God seems to me as if I loved the air and the water. I perceive the rushing of the wind, yet not the softest breath blows through my hair. I feel hunger and thirst, yet do not wish to eat or drink. I am sleepy, but cannot fall asleep. I am tired, but my limbs shrink from any rest. I pray to God, but my heart lies motionless on the ground like a stone. I gaze up to the light-filled heights, but a heavy pall of cloud covers them. Yes, everything within me and outside of me seems very strange to me! I do not seem to exist, and everything I see appears to have only a partial existence, or as if it is not there or will soon vanish.
19
"O Lord and Father, do keep us in Your hands and awaken us again; and do not allow us to fall asleep on the road of life in broad daylight! Drive us away from this region and revoke the distinctions among the regions foolishly introduced by us. It is true that in the regions of the natural evening, as well as morning, the best people can and also shall dwell.
20
"We ourselves have soiled this region, and even more so that of midnight. Now that we have entered this region, the dirt oppresses our own hearts and almost chokes us. O God, Lord and Father, we are now helpless. Do help all of us out of this great misery and save us from ruin through our great folly! Amen."