Lectionary Readings for Monday, February 24th, 2020

Book of Osiris Chapter 7, Chapter 8

Chapter 7

1. Who shall tell the story of the Gods of heaven! Their mighty kingdoms, overspreading
the whole earth! Hundreds and hundreds, and thousands! Their libraries of records of
valorous and holy deeds! A council chamber of half a million souls! Hundreds of
departments; thousands! Here a board to select young students to the colleges of
messengers. Another board to select students to the colleges of arts. Another to select
students to mathematics. Another for prophecy. Another for great learning. Another for
factories. Another for compounding and dissolving elements. Then come the departments
of the cosmogony of the stars; then, of the ethereal worlds; then, the roadways of the
firmament; then, a’ji and ji’ya, and nebulae; then, se’mu; then hi’dan and dan; then, the
dawn of dan; then, histories of the heavens far and near; then, genealogy of thousands of
Orian Chiefs; the creation of mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. Yea, but to
enumerate the half of what cometh before a God and his council would itself fill a book.

2. Who, then, O Jehovih, shall venture to tell the labor and wisdom of Thy etherean
Gods! How shall the second resurrection give up its mysteries? Shall Thy recorder follow
the young student for messenger, and disclose the training put upon him? How, like a
carrier dove, he is taught to go from place to place, but holding the message in his head?
Then follow the student in another department, and make a record of how he is taught?
And of the multitude of questions that come before the Council from far-off places. Then
the rites and ceremonies, and the unending variety and magnificence of the music. Can a
man describe a million men and women and children? A hundred millions! A thousand
millions! Five thousand millions! Who hath seen so great a man, to do this! And yet this
is but Thy lower heaven, O Jehovih!

3. A strange voice riseth up from the earth, saying: Have they anything to do in heaven?
O ye Gods! And one half of the earth-born coming hither in infancy! And the countless
millions who know little more than the beasts of the field! To be falsely taught that these
unfortunates would skip off to paradise and possess great learning in the hour of death!

4. O that their understanding could be opened up to Thy kingdoms, Thou All-Extending
Creator! That their eyes could look upon the greatness of even Thy lower heaven! To
behold a thousand departments reaching as wide as the earth! And then the hundreds of
thousands of branch departments, of hundreds of grades, adapted to every soul that riseth
up from the earth.

5. O that they could look into the dark places in atmospherea! That they could see a
million souls, plunged in chaos by terrible war! Crazed spirits, wild and battling! Not
knowing they are dead! The ceaseless toil of a million nurses and physicians, laboring day
and night with them! O the darkness upon them! O the glory of Thy exalted ones! Who is
there, having seen the magnificence of Thy glories, will not bestir himself every moment
to lift up his brother and point the way to Thy throne?

6. O that they could see Thy swift Gods of dawn! How they hear a hundred tongues at one
time, and frame answers for all of them, and, by a motion of the hand, dispatch
messengers to fulfill the same in words! How they select officers, to know a hundred at a
glance, and know where to place them; that every one shall fit his place! Who is there, O
Father, can frame into words the proceedings of heaven, so that mortals can comprehend
even a fraction of Thy great glories!

7. Shall a man light a candle and say it representeth the sun? How, then, shall they find
the affairs of mortals comparable to Thy kingdoms? O, that they knew the meaning of the
difference betwixt All Light and the darkness of man’s judgment.

8. O that they knew Thee, Thou Central Sun of All Light! They have put away Thy
Person, and they go in any direction. Thy Great Gods are but myths to them, because of
the darkness of their souls. Behold, they look for a small man with a large sword! The
power of great wisdom they know not.

9. That they could behold the coming and going of thousands of messengers, from far-off
kingdoms, before the throne of Thy God! How he hath answered their matters suddenly!
And the while heeded the voices of a thousand marshals! O that man knew the glory of
Order! The power of Harmony!

10. They have seen a clock with a hundred wheels, and the eye of its maker overseeing its
every part in motion, and they call it wonderful! But how can they know Thy Councils, O
Jehovih? Thy millions? And Thy God on his throne, mantled in Thy Light, overseeing a
whole heaven! What majesty of words can make mortals comprehend His wisdom, and
power, and great labors!

Chapter 8

1. Thus Osire established Vibhraj, the resplendent heaven, with a thousand and eight
hundred sub-kingdoms, in atmospherea, all under the commandments of the central
kingdom. And then he established the roadways between them, and appointed seven
hundred thousand messengers. After that he ordained proper officers for intercommunion; and the several sub-kingdoms established their places of learning and places of labor; their hospitals and nurseries, and their innumerable asaphs, the receivers of
es’yans, the newborn spirits of the dead of earth.

2. Osire said: Behold, there is order in heaven. Now will I appoint a God to hold
dominion two hundred years. For whilst the dawn of dan yet remaineth, I will assist him.
Let the examiners search, then, amongst my hosts, from such as sprang from the earth,
such one as standeth clear on the record, and chief in rank.

3. So the examiners searched; and after thirty days, they selected Konas; and when Osire
was informed, he sent a thousand of his own attendants, in an otevan, and they brought
Konas to Vibhraj, to Jehovih’s throne. Osire said:

4. Greeting, in the name of the Father! Thou art chosen above all others; and, after the
dawn of dan is ended, thou shalt be God of heaven and earth for two hundred years.
Before the ascent of my hosts and of myself, behold, I will crown thee. Till then, thou
shalt sit on my throne, and fill my place whilst I am absent.

5. I have now restored order in heaven, having given all the inhabitants a single purpose
in concert, whereby their resurrection is surely founded. Now will I go down to the false
Lords’ kingdoms, on the earth, and to the mortal kings and queens, and restore order there
also.

6. Konas said: Thy will and Jehovih’s be done! I am exalted and rejoiced in what is
bestowed upon me. Make me strong and wise, O Jehovih, that I may glorify Thy
kingdoms!

7. So, after due preparation, Osire departed privately, taking with him one hundred
thousand attendants, going down to the earth and to the false Lords’ kingdoms, in the
cities and temples of mortals.

8. Seven days Osire spent traveling round about the earth, visiting angels and mortals, but
telling none who he was, or what was his object; and then he halted his otevan, which had
been built for the purpose, in the regions of the mountains of We-ont-ka-woh, in Western
Jaffeth. He said:

9. We-ont-ka-woh shall be my headquarters for a season. Here, then, will I found the first
Lord’s kingdom for mortals; and inasmuch as mortals have made an idol of Apollo, so
will I cast down Apollo, and make them know that I, Osire, am Lord of the earth. Then
spake We’taing, saying:

10. Behold the glory of Jehovih from the first! In our journey around the earth, we have
found the I’hins not idolaters, but still worshippers of the Great Spirit, Jehovih. But as to
the half-breeds, who can understand them? They believe nothing; they believe everything.
They ask the idol for rain, and for dry weather! For strength to slay the druks; for flesh to
eat, and for famine to be visited on their enemies.

11. They are as living prey for druj to feast on; they invite the darkest of all evil. And to
do their wills in return, the druj, the evil spirits, busy themselves inoculating the air with
poison to kill their enemies.

12. Osire said: With the I’hins we have little to do; but as to the Ghans and the I’huans,
they shall be converted into disbelievers of all spirits, save two, Jehovih and satan.

13. To accomplish which end, I will give them three figures: The signs of seasons, which
shall represent the Creator in all the parts of the living; the sign of the sun, with motion
and all life coming forth; and the hand of man.