The Household of God
Volume 2
Rise and spiritual prime of the first world empire Hanoch
- Chapter 215 -
RELATION OF FAITH TO LOVE AND LOVE TO COGNITION. PARABLE OF THE VIRGIN AND THE TWO SUITORS (21st December 1842)
After viewing the panorama once more, the two descended from the mountain to the city, and on the way down Lamech asked Kisehel to give a permanent blessing to the mountain so that henceforth no vermin should be able to settle there.
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And Kisehel did this, but said afterwards to Lamech: "Dear brother Lamech, behold, I have fulfilled your wish in keeping with all my power and acting might conferred by the Lord.
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"But the purity of this mountain will nevertheless always depend on the purity of your heart.
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"If you and your descendants will remain in the purity of heart alone pleasing to God, this will always be the case also with this mountain. However, if you will sully your heart through a sin before God its former inhabitants will again begin to infest the mountain. This applies also to those following you.
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"When you will see a snake crawling on the mountain, remember what I have now revealed to you out of the Lord of Glory, repent in sackcloth and ashes and fast until your heart is pure! Once this is the case the mountain will again drive out its dwellers.
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'The greatest thing is the love for the Lord. As long as your heart is filled with the love for God, you and your descendants will be completely incapable of falling into any sin.
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"However, if you or some of your descendants will slacken in this love, in the mere faith you will have a rather weak protection against the might of sin within you!
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"For it is by far not sufficient for life for someone to merely know, believe and then say: There is a God.' Truly, this is not difficult.
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"But it is far more difficult and far more significant to love above all a God Whom one does not see.
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"Hence, whoever wants to love God, must not only know and believe that He exists, but he must truly recognize God within himself; and once he recognizes God more and more through his diligent searching for Him in His works he will have to love Him more and more, for he will recognize more and more clearly that God is in Himself the supreme and purest, that is, the most unselfish love and the supreme and most holy wisdom in person!
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'Thus the true cognition of God is the reason for our love for Him; so let it be everyone's foremost business to recognize God so as to love Him above all.
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'This is then eternal life, that we recognize God and then love Him above all; for we came forth from the love of the exceedingly good and most holy Father and can therefore return to Him only through love.
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"Heed this in addition to these words of God out of my mouth to your heart, namely, that there are two roads leading to the Father: One is called the true, zealous recognition of good; but the other is called 'love'!
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"You say: 'In view of the preceding elucidation it actually seems to be completely immaterial since the love must be of necessity preceded by the recognition of God.'
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"Indeed, this is how it appears at first sight; however, when one looks at the matter more with the light of the spirit a tremendous difference emerges.
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"For you to see such a significant difference all the more clearly, I will demonstrate it to your eyes concisely and clearly through a good corresponding example.
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"'Thus presume there is in some unknown spot of your great land a gloriously beautiful daughter who is mature for someone to take her as his wife. But to make it known among men she sends out messengers throughout the country.
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"After this has been proclaimed some say: 'If there were any truth in it she would have come in person and shown herself to us so that we might recognize and choose her for our heart!
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"'However, since she merely sends word through messengers informing us of how glorious she is, we mayor may not believe it.
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"'On top of it she makes it known that she will accept no one who does not acknowledge beforehand that she is as the heralds proclaimed!
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Who would be foolish enough to go to such trouble?'
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"However, among the many who despise and ridicule this news there are two who think otherwise. The one says to himself: 'I will go and have a good look at her; if she is as the messengers say she is, I will without qualms choose her for my heart.'
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"But the other says to the messenger, in the ardor of his love: 'Lead me to her; I do not want to probe her over a long time, for I have already ardently embraced her in my heart; I already love her more than anything in the world:
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"Now when both meet this daughter, the first will promptly be highly amazed, will recognize and choose her; but the second one will say to her: 'O you infinitely glorious daughter of the heavens, forgive me poor simpleton; for I have dared to love you prior to recognizing you and am realizing only now how unworthy my love was of your heavenly nature. So let me again leave you so that I can love you in secret with all the strength of my heart:
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"Whom, do you think, will this bride accept? - Certainly the one who had loved her prior to recognizing her!
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"But the first will have to content himself - so as to remain in her heavenly presence - with just looking at her as one of her servants, whereas the second one will be able to enjoy the fullness of bliss in her arms at all times.
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"Behold, this is the tremendous difference: Whoever loves God already prior to cognition, will gain life in its fullness; but he who loves God after the cognition, will also be living, however, not in the heart but in the realm of grace as a well-rewarded servant.
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"Heed this well, dear brother Lamech; for it is of the utmost importance for life! And so let us again enter the city. Amen."