The Household of God
Volume 2
Rise and spiritual prime of the first world empire Hanoch
- Chapter 25 -
SATAN'S MIGHT AND GOD'S ALMIGHTINESS. ENOCH'S SABBATH SPEECH
Following this speech of Abedam, Enoch, contemplating his innermost, found Abedam's assertions verified.
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Continuing his contemplation on the breeding fly and the healthy apple he then asked Abedam:
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"Holy, most loving Father, is Satan also allowed to approach Your tabernacle, just like the naughty fly attacking the healthy apple?
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"Look, truly, this seems strange to happen in the realm of life and light; - what has the spirit of all darkness to do there?"
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And Abedam answered him: "Enoch, what concern of yours is this, since My love and mercy are too great for you to ever grasp and comprehend?
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"Since My love and mercy may even extend to the darkest of spirits, how can you ask this as if you might come off badly in My immediate vicinity?
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"Behold, the earth's sun is a great light dispensing its rays, the greatest part of which reaches endlessly remote spaces of the universe. Should for that reason the earth and its neighbors be upset because their luminous mother is so wasteful with her rays? And if they could do this, should not the luminous mother be able to forthwith ask them:
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"Children, why do you trouble yourselves; do I treat you badly for all that and does not each of you have a proper, abundant amount of light and warmth?'
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"Behold, the same thing applies also to Me. Therefore, do not trouble yourself about My great, inscrutable ways, but remain unconcernedly on the little ones of My love for you. Do not talk about the great realms of darkness and you can be fully assured that the still strong prince of death will have little to do and to settle with you and with all brothers of your love.
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"I tell you though: Eternities would not suffice for you to fathom the greatness of his might and strength; but, he is nevertheless a finite, created spirit, and where his power ceases forever to exist, My own, infinite one is only about to begin.
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"Therefore, be unconcerned; for, since you are in My hands, your slightest whiff is already mightier than all the strength, might and power of Satan.
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"He is like a hungry, roaring lion craving for food. Woe betide the animal that succumbs to him or has been scented by his keen nose; I tell you: Even the mammoth would fare badly in such a battle.
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"But although the lion roars with wrath and hunger, he does not heed the oftentimes many flies buzzing around his ears.
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"Behold, therein lies the great might of that which is meek and little; often, a fly can bother a whole pride of lions, whereas this same pride of lions is of no concern to the fly.
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"You have long since become a fly in humility; therefore, leave the lion alone so that he will not bother you, and then begin your pious work unconcernedly. Amen."
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Thereupon Enoch thanked the high Abedam fervently in his heart for this great deliverance and strengthening and finally said: "Amen; Your holy will be done.
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Thus listen, all you fathers, brothers and children, who already have an open ear:
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"We are here gathered together in the middle of the day of the Lord in the sublime presence of the supreme, most holy, loving Father, Who is God, God the Powerful, the Strong, the almighty Creator of heaven and earth.
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"What shall we do, considering our limitation, to appreciate as much as possible this endless grace, of which the whole earth is unworthy?
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"Whenever we render a service to one another, the recipient can render the helper an extra service.
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"If someone has led me a hundred paces, I lead him in turn two hundred paces - one hundred because he went along with me, and one hundred because he led me. We are then even and no one owes his brother for a service rendered more than at the utmost the threefold service in return. If he wishes to do more, he is quite free to do so; but in this case his brother has become his debtor also.
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"Whoever gives me a piece of bread, to him I give back three pieces: One piece for his piece, one piece for his good intention and one piece for the effort of his hand; say, can he then want more from me?
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"As I have said, it is indeed easy to reciprocate a thousand fold, as the case may be, not only twofold or threefold, the brother's service and kindness, even if someone had saved my life by snatching me from a rock face about to crash down upon my head so that I would be crushed under the great weight of the rock; for I can still die for him and can carry him on my hands all my life.
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"But - what can we do here? What do for our Father, our Creator, for Him, the holy Giver of all good gifts? For Him, Who first gave us ourselves, Who gave us the beautiful great earth for ourselves for the time being, - the sun, this glorious, beneficial light, - the stars, countless lights of the night, and also the moon! Who could count all the treasures He has given us?
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"To top it all, He now came to us Himself so as to enrich us forever with even greater treasures of life eternal.
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"To enrich us through His love, mercy and grace, through His living Word, and above all through the most inexpressible promises.
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"Listen, listen you fathers, brothers and you children all! What can we possibly do to this Benefactor in return? - What give Him without at first having received it countless times over from Him?
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"O fathers, brothers and children, truly this is one of the greatest and most important questions, indeed, this is a question so profound that to answer even a small part of this Question of all questions the whole of eternity might be too short!
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"If somebody asked: 'How many grains of sand does the earth contain, and how many dewdrops the whole, almost endlessly great ocean and, finally, how many stellar suns burn in the vast spaces of infinity?', - look, infinitely great as they may sound, these questions might perhaps be sufficiently answered even by a more or less enlightened cherub. Indeed, he would probably calculate the amount of sand on earth in such a manner as to take our breath away and demonstrate to us the dewdrops of the ocean in a manner as to make us all soon exclaim: 'Do spare us your great answer for one droplet is quite sufficient for us!'
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Thus he would probably not fail to inform us on the number of stellar suns in such a way as to make the whole earth tremble, just as if our most holy Abedam would - in a very low voice - proclaim to it: 'Listen, you unfaithful one! Tomorrow I will cleanse you in the fire of My wrath!'
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"O fathers, brothers and children, great, even unbearably great though these answers would be, - yet they are not impossible to give, even though they are unpalatable to us worms in the dust.
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"However, tell me and give me your opinion as to which of the greatest and wisest of primordial archangels would dare to give a valid, - indeed, before God valid - answer to my principal question contained in this my speech.
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"Behold, that is the sublime reason; indeed - it lies in this question over which the whole of eternity and the whole of infinity observe a continuous silence, full of the greatest reverence.
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"Yes, - here the high, exalted angel becomes silent and in contrition sinks down before Him, Who created him for all eternity; for also he cannot help loving with all his heart and worshipping the most holy Father, Who had already loved him from eternities, before he existed in person.
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"And all the suns never counted by any created angel spirit, with all the great dwellers inhabiting their fiery surface, what do or can they do? Listen! Hardly anything different from what the greatest primordial archangel is doing. In their exalted, reverential silence they fulfill the holy will of the great, exceedingly good Father, and this is all they are capable of doing. Their great praise is made known by every sun even to endlessly remote creations, and thus they proclaim to one another silently through their far-reaching rays that there is only one God and that this God is one and the same holy, most loving Father, Who lovingly created them for love with which to love also the remote, dark spaces and enliven them with the love of the holy Father.
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"O fathers, brothers and children, believe me, the whole earth is full of the love of the holy Father; for, if it were not, truly, we would not have ground upon which to rest our feet and long ago the horrible abyss of eternal infinity would have swallowed up even our bodies.
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"Thus behold the earth, full of love, behold the suns, full of the mighty love of the holy Father, wherefore they carry in far-flung orbits their earths, as these carry us, as well as the perpetual infant, the serene-lovely teacher of the ages, the moon shining for us at night!
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"What else but love is the quickening warmth of the sun? Yes, the holy Father's love is contained in it. And its light, its glorious light! What else is it - but only the sublime luminosity emitted by the flames of the holy love of the exceedingly good, most holy Father within it?
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"O fathers, brothers and children, just look, look a little at the great creation around us; it is everywhere full of love! Yes, I tell you with the best vital reason: Whatever you look at - be it little or great, near or far away -, everything is full to overflowing with the love of the holy Father.
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"Everything, indeed everything, praises, loves and worships Him incessantly. None asks as we do: 'What shall we do? Where begin and where end the great praise of the holy Father?', but in the silence of their inner bliss they fulfill the holy Father's will, and the vast spaces of remote worlds are still witnesses to the mild, sublimely silent activity of a reverentially quiet and lovingly devoted sun and of other things full of love.
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"Only we children, - listen! - we children of this very same holy Father, we living children can still ask in the personal presence of God: 'What shall we do?' A question, which no angel will ever answer in eternity!
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"And still we ask in the midst of the wonders of love, causing them almost to burst with love: 'What shall we do?'
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"Nothing, - nothing we can do but only love Him with all the strength given us by Him and gratefully and joyfully enjoy every gift bestowed on us by the eternal love out of Him!
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"Hence, most beloved fathers, brothers and children, since it is impossible to us all to answer this question conclusively, all our loftiest thoughts being too petty compared to the magnitude of our sin before and against the most holy Father, all we can do is to expand our hearts as far as possible so as to love this our exceedingly good, loving, holy Father above all and, once our love will reach the highest pinnacle, to fall down before Him in the dust of our own complete nothingness, humble ourselves before Him to the last atom of our being and then, in our full contrition, worship Him almost silently in the spirit of the purest love and in the truth out of it.
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"Neither burnt sacrifices nor the blood of animals or the smoke from the burnt ears of wheat and corn, but only the in spirit and truth pure and whole burnt sacrifices of our hearts are pleasing to the most holy Father.
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Therefore, wherever He prefers it most we want to erect for Him not dead, but living sacrificial altars on which, just as in the new tabernacle of the magnificent Purista, the pure flame of our love shall not go out forevermore, but shall instead flare up more and more forcefully to the sole honor of Him, - Who is now among us and Who is exceedingly holy.
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"Let everyone do according to his strength and capabilities; for, just as the flowers are not of one and the same kind, there being countless varieties so that even the last inhabitants of the earth will not know them all, and as there also exist grasses, trees, animals, and stars in the heaven, - so there are, according to the most wise order of Jehovah, our most holy Father, in every human being unthinkably diverse degrees of good spiritual powers and thus also diverse capabilities of the human soul
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"He who has a strong heart, let him be also strong in love so that through his love also all his other energies will be strengthened for life.
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"He who has a keen sight, let him channel the focal points of his sight into his heart, so that thereby his thanksgiving offering may become inflamed and fully ignited thus enabling his spirit to become enlivened and quickened in the true love for God, Who is our most loving, holy Father and is now amongst us, visible to us all.
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"Who has a good hearing, let him turn his ear drums to the ears of his heart so that thereby in his heart all the perceived clamor may unite to a true, strong, the Father pleasing hymn of praise before the living sacrificial altar of love and of all true life issuing from it within us.
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"Who is strong in his thoughts about many things, let him direct all these thoughts back into his heart; indeed, let him send all his thoughts to the bottom of his heart where the living sacrificial altar of pure love is erected, and lay them down on this hallowed altar, there to ignite them with the otherwise maybe weaker flame of his love so that thereby this flame might become stronger and more pleasing to God, enlivening him all the more through and through.
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"Also let him who is of great sensibility direct this rich oil source to the altar of pure love in the heart so that the flame be continually nourished to the glorification due to the sublime and most holy name of Jehovah within us.
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"With him who is strong in perceiving all kinds of things these perceptions are the fresh wood which everyone hungry and thirsty for the sustenance of life shall bring as an extra offering to the tabernacle of Purista.
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"Lay plenty of this wood on the altar of the living tabernacle within us so that thereby the flames will be more and more kindled to the true praise and glorification of Him Whom it pleased to erect for Himself a holy, living abode in our hearts.
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"He who is strong in neighborly love, let him lead his brothers and sisters into this pure tabernacle of the Lord, there to provide them abundantly with the sustenance of life. Verily, it is the hymn of praise most pleasing to the most loving, holy Father if many poorer brothers and sisters warm themselves at the holy flame of pure love within us, feeding joyfully and with a grateful hear tat the hospitable table of the glorious Purista in us.
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O fathers, brothers and children! Verily, verily, verily, - we cannot do anything greater and more pleasing to the holy Father than full of joy, love, readiness to serve and generosity take in our poorer brothers and sisters, even if they came to us from the lowlands, putting on for them the by far bigger cooking pot than the one destined for us and giving them food and drink ahead of ourselves.
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"Mark this especially: Even ahead - of ourselves! Otherwise the sublime holy guest, Who has now also in us all erected the holy kitchen of Purista, will hardly drop in, there to partake of the sustenance of love and to bless us with life eternal!
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"Fathers, brothers and children! Hence, in whatsoever someone may feel his strength to be, let him think and believe in his living heart that any strength in us is a gift of grace on the part of the most holy Father.
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"Therefore, what kind of a man possessing a certain strength would use it as if it were purely his own?
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"I tell you, there cannot be a greater selfishness than this!
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"For anyone taking credit for some work performed by his brother would surely be also full of self-love; but in this case he would only be dealing with his brother, being a wicked thief towards his brother.
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"But in claiming as his own a gift of Jehovah he is dealing with God, Who is our most loving, holy Father and to Whom alone belong all things, powers, forces and all might.
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"Look, listen and understand: Such a self-loving person then becomes a thief towards God, - and this is the highest degree of self-love.
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"Verily, in this case man ceases to be a child of the most holy Father, so much so that thereby he submits to judgment becoming merely a creature; if there is no betterment in him he even becomes a child of the serpent, a child of death and thus a child of wrath and of hell, which is an eternal tomb full of curse, damnation and full of the fire of wrath of all everlasting depravity.
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Therefore, as I have said before, dear fathers, brothers and children, whoever amongst you has some predominant strength shall not regard it as his possession, but as a continually renewed gift from the most holy Father. With this he shall promptly go to the tabernacle of Purista in his own heart, lay this holy gift on the sacrificial altar in his own shrine, then, bringing fresh wood of true inner humility to this holy hearth, lay it on the perhaps already weak flame of pure love; this will then again be rekindled, seize the offering and consume it to the sole praise, honor and glory of Him, Who is the sale holy Giver of all such good gifts and Whose name is Jehovah, God from eternity, infinite and above all holy and almighty, our most holy Father, full of the highest love, grace and mercy.
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"For only to Him are due all love, all praise, all honor, all glory and all worship.
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"What, then, is the true, pure love for God within us? It is the most intimate uniting of our entire life with the Life of all life in God, from which life all life, all being and all things have gone forth.
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"Hence, 'to love God alone' means nothing but: To begin in God Himself a new, forever immortal, imperishable life by laying all our power as the most holy Father's gift on the altar in our own eating-house of the spirit erected by God, then to support the holy little flame with the fresh wood of our humility so as to create a good fire which will seize all our sacrificed powers, consume them and, in a worldly sense, destroy us.
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"But from this very destruction a new life will go forth, even a life in God, the most loving, holy Father of us all.
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This is the ordained biggest cooking vessel in the holy tabernacle of the glorious Purista. If the fruits cooking in it are completely done, the sublime, holy guest will come, there at the hallowed table of the children to hold a new supper with them, a supper of eternal love, grace and mercy, indeed, a supper for eternal life.
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"Behold, if we do this, it is a right praise, a right honor, a true glory, a highest reward for us and the alone true worship in the destruction of our finite nature in the holy fire of pure love within us; for then we truly prostate ourselves before God in the dust of our complete nothingness, uniting ourselves in and through the fire of love consuming us on the new sacrificial altar in our hearts with God, the most loving, holy Father of us all.
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"Verily, verily, dear fathers, brothers and children, unless someone offers himself up completely on this to us now well-known altar in the tabernacle of the glorious Purista within us but refuses to be consumed to dust, smoke and ashes, - in short, whoever does not want to undergo this crucial test will not rid himself of certain death and will not ever be rewarded for eternal life with a Ghemela!
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"Whoever lives and breathes and perceives the endless blessing of life, sensing the inexpressible sweetness of the same, let him realize that this earthly life is only a trial life and in everything a gift of the holy Father.
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"He who wants to appropriate it foolishly will lose it forever; but he who, offering himself up, will again surrender it completely to the great, holy Giver in the manner shown, will keep it wholly forever, ever, ever in God, the most holy, loving Father of us all!
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"Having heard what behooves everyone of us before God, we do not rest satisfied with merely listening but make what we hear audible through words in our own heart so that it may from there pass into the blood and from the blood into all parts of our being towards the living deed. For, if someone has heard the true, living Word from God Himself and thereby been shown the way, indeed, the shortest and surest way, and does not promptly walk this way completely, he is certainly the greatest fool, the laziest ox and the silliest ass because the power of the living word has anyway already strengthened him while he merely heard it and has already brought him to life at least halfway, when it would be very easy for him to fully enliven himself through the activating of his own free will.
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"Hence, do not rest satisfied with merely listening, but let everyone proceed with these words deep in his heart to the living deed, and he will be truly wise in the order of Jehovah; for he will prefer a living house from a thousand slender cedars standing in a nice circle to a dead one from hewn firs which, though put in the earth, soon rot away in the earth since they themselves are dead. And as soon as some storm rages over these dead houses, they collapse killing their inhabitants.
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"The house built from living cedars is a secure house in which we find the right protection at all times.
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"As we put the seed into the soil so as to achieve a living house in the said circle within the shortest possible time, - must we not, despite our great desire for a living house, become properly patient and be in the meantime content to dwell in the dead huts until such time when the living house is fully ready for us to move into? And once we have moved in, how happy we are to now have a solid living house, which is able to protect us against any storm!
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"But it happens so often that for years a man keeps running with the water-hose around the circle of little trees watering them carefully so that they may quickly shoot up enabling him to wrap the trunks with the aromatic branches of the myrtle, laurel and balsam palm tree and to fill in the cavities with the abundant lavender from the sheep grazing hillocks as well as with scented moss, whereupon he would use the main tree in the center as support for a roof woven from the indestructible golden straw and stretching as far as the trees forming the outer walls.
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"Look, this we call wise; indeed, this is also acting wisely! However, let us translate this wise handling of the matter to our own case.
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"The best seed has now been sown abundantly. Besides, we have a very great amount of the best living water. The great, holy, almighty Builder of all things is visibly among us. We have all been awakened. We are in the hallowed middle of the brightest day. From the grazing alps the rich fragrance of aromatic herbs is wafting down to us. The golden straw, which has turned out well, is everywhere available in abundance.
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"Therefore, we need very little to come into possession, spiritually, of the living houses; oh, think, think, how very little!
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"And so let us all seize actively the living, holy Word, which is a word of all life, all might and all strength directly from God Himself, and we shall not miss out on Lamech's reward, the heavenly Ghemela, or the exceedingly mildly and gently condescending love of the most holy Father. Yes, it is already with us; we only have to seize it actively and we shall attain to the goal set us by the endless goodness and love of the most holy Father Himself. A sublime goal, an exceedingly sublime goal A goal of the most perfect, eternal life!
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"Verily, if that is not worthy of all our poor efforts, then, with all the strength, might and power from God now indwelling me, - indeed, owing to it, the whole of creation shall revert to its former nothingness and we as children along with it!
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"I swear an oath to you and I give you all a great token in the visible presence of Jehovah, Who was, is, and will forever be my constant, mighty witness, and say now, as I have so far said every word in His name:
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"Verily, verily, verily, - the whole visible creation is mortally depressed by an old, in a twofold sense disastrous fall! The whole world is defiled by old sin, we all have inherited death, on the one hand in spirit and then in the flesh.
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"Although God, owing to His supreme holiness, cannot restore to us life in the flesh, yet He has, in His endless love, shown mercy upon our spirit and has, therefore, made us again in spirit children of His grace, mercy and endless love, so that we might again take part in eternal life.
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"Fathers, brothers and children, now they are before us, the life and the road to Him: Love - the life, humility - the road! Let us seize them courageously and act accordingly, and we shall certainly not pass into death in the immediate proximity of the great Originator and Primordial Source of all life, but only into eternal life itself, which has now come to us and will surely remain with and within us forever! Amen, Amen, Amen."