Lectionary Readings for Saturday, January 18th, 2020

Seventh-Day Sabbath

First Book of the First Lords Chapter III, Chapter IV

Chapter 3

1. And God gave commandments unto man, that the earth might be a place of rejoicing
forever. And these are the commandments of the Lord God as given in that day:

2. Thou shalt strive to remember the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

3. Thou shalt not kill man, nor beast, nor bird, nor creeping thing, for they are the Lord’s.

4. Thou shalt build walls round about thy cities, that beasts and serpents may not enter
and do thee harm. And if thy habitation be in the wilderness, thou shalt build mounds of
wood and earth to sleep on at night, that serpents and beasts may not molest thee.

5. The I’hins inquired of the Lord, saying: If we build walls around about our cities, how
shall we get in and out? How shall we gather our harvests of fruit and nuts and seeds of
the field? How shall we ascend on the mounds which we build in the wilderness?

6. The Lord said: Behold, my angels shall teach you to build ladders and how to use them.
And when ye go into the city at night ye shall take the ladders in after you; and when ye
come out in the morning ye shall let the ladders down again.

7. And God’s angels taught the chosen these things, and man provided the cities with
ladders, and he provided the mounds with ladders also; according to the commandment of
God were these things done.

8. And the I’hins prospered and spread abroad over the face of the earth; hundreds of
thousands of cities and mounds built they, and they rejoiced in the glory of all created
things. Neither killed they man, nor beast, nor fish, nor bird, nor creeping thing that
breathed the breath of life.

9. And God saw that man was good and grateful in all things; and God called unto the
angels of heaven, saying: Why are the I’hins good? For, as yet, they are ignorant!

10. And the angels answered, saying: Because thou saidst unto us: Go ye, as guardian
angels, and inspire man to live without evil, even so have we administered unto the I’hins,
guarding and inspiring them night and day.

11. God said: Why then, the I’hins have no honor. Except they learn of themselves to be
good, they will be void of wisdom in heaven. For this reason ye shall withdraw a little,
that man be tried as to his self-commandment.

12. And the angels withdrew awhile from the I’hins. And now it came to pass, that they
had stored in their cities and on their mounds ample provision of food and raiment for the
winter; but the druks followed not the example of the I’hins, for the druks stored up
nothing.

13. And when the angels departed a little way, evil spirits came to the druks, and said
unto them: Behold, it is winter, and ye are hungry. Go ye over the ladders and possess the
stores of the I’hins.

14. And the druks plundered the I’hins; and evil spirits sat upon the I’hins also, and many
of them were inspired to defend their stores. And war ensued; and it spread around about
the whole earth.

15. And the I’hins besought the Lord as to why God suffered evil to come upon his
chosen.

16. And the Lord said: Because ye depended upon me for all things, ye developed not
yourselves. Henceforth shall man learn to face evil on his own account; otherwise he
could not attain to the Godhead in heaven.

17. Two entities hast thy Creator given thee, that which is flesh, and that which is spirit.
And the flesh shall desire earthly things; but the spirit shall desire heavenly things.

18. Behold, when the druks came upon thee for thy stores, thy flesh cried out WAR, and
thy people fell.

19. Again have I come to thee to raise thee up; to make thee understand the spirit within.
It is that, and not the flesh, which shall learn to triumph.

20. The I’hins said: Our people are scattered and gone; will they not mingle with the
druks, and thus go out in darkness?

21. The Lord said: Behold there were druks who had learned a little from the images; now
because thy people are scattered and gone, they shall go amongst the druks and teach the
law of incest and the name of God, and they shall also begin to hide their nakedness.

22. So the Lord inspired other people besides the I’hins, to make and wear clothes, and
they thus wore them.

23. And again the Lord brought the I’hins together in lodges and cities, and he said unto
them: Henceforth ye shall live upon the earth as an example of righteousness. And your
brethren who have mingled with the tribes of darkness shall no longer molest you, but be
your defenders and protectors.

24. And there began to be a new tribe on the earth; and they were called I’huans, because
they were half-breeds, betwixt the druks and I’hins. The I’huans were red like copper; and
they were taller and stronger than any other people in all the world. And the Lord
commanded the I’huans, saying:

25. Protect ye the I’hins, the little people, bright like copper; call them THE
SACRED PEOPLE. For ye are of them, and ye are also of the Lord your God. And it was so.

Chapter 4

1. About this time man began to use his lip and tongue in enunciating words, prior to
which he spoke in the thorax.

2. And the Lord spake unto the I’hin, saying: That the labor of the Lord thy God may be
remembered on the earth, go provide me a stone and I will engrave it with mine own
hand, and it shall be called Se’moin (see first tablet, BOOK OF SAPHAH) because it shall be a
testimony unto all nations and peoples, on the earth, of the first written language in all the
world.

3. And the I’hins prepared a stone, and hewed it flat and then polished it smooth; and
the Lord came down in the night and engraved it. And the Lord explained it;
through his angels taught he the I’hins the meaning of the characters engraved thereon.

4. And the Lord said: Go into all cities in all the countries of the world, and provide ye
copies like unto the tablet I have given. So it came to pass, the angels of heaven inspired
the I’hins to make tablets and to read them, that the first language of the earth (Panic)
might be preserved to the races of men. And it was so.

5. Now the I’huans partly obeyed the Lord and partly obeyed the way of the flesh; and
they became warriors and destroyers; nevertheless they harmed not the I’hins, nor suffered
harm to come upon them.

6. God had commanded the I’hins to make eunuchs of the Yaks, the monstrosities, and
use them as servants; for the Lord saw that the Yaks were not capable of everlasting life
in heaven.

7. Now the I’huans also served the Yaks in the same way; but they disobeyed God in
inflicting the neutral gender on their enemies whom they captured in war. And although
they were themselves half-breeds with the druks, yet they hated the druks, and pursued
them with vengeance.

8. In those days the relative proportion of the races of men were: I’hins, one hundred;
I’huans, three hundred; druks, five thousand; Yaks, five thousand; and of monstrosities
betwixt man and beast, three thousand; but the latter died each generation, for they had
not the power of procreation amongst themselves.

9. And God saw the work of destruction going on (of the I’huans slaughtering right and
left), and he sent the I’hins to preach amongst them, saying to the I’hins.

10. Thus say ye to the I’huans: Whomsoever is created alive, kill not, for it is the
commandment of the Lord.

11. For in the time of your most success in slaughtering your fellow-man, ye are also
peopling heaven with the spirits of vengeance. And they will return upon you, and even
the I’huans shall turn upon one another; thus saith God.

12. But the I’huans understood not; believed not. And it came to pass that great darkness
covered the earth. And man, save the few I’hins, gave up to wickedness all his days.

13. And the Lord’s people worshipped and preached in the temples, and the Lord and his
heavenly hosts manifested unto them; but all the other races of men heard not, would not
come to learn of God.

14. And the Lord became tired in his labor, and He called his angels to him, and he said
unto them: Behold, man on the earth hath gone so far from my ways he will not heed my
commandments; he cannot hear my voice.

15. And your labor is in vain also. For which reason we will tarry no longer on the earth
till man hath exhausted the evil that is in him.

16. So the Lord and his angel hosts departed away from the earth. And clouds came over
the face of the earth; the moon shone not, and the sun was only as a red coal of fire; and
the stars stood in the firmament as well in the day as at night.

17. The harvests failed; the trees yielded no nuts, and the roots on which man feedeth
ceased to grow.

18. And the monstrosities, and the Yaks, and the druks, died off, tens of millions of them.
And even yet they were not extinct. Nevertheless, the I’huans suffered less; and the I’hins
not at all. For the Lord had previously inspired them to provide against the coming
famine.

19. And the Lord bewailed the earth and the generations of man: I made man upright and
walked by his side, but he slipped aside and fell, said the Lord. I admonished him, but he
would not heed. I showed him that every living creature brought forth its own kind; but
he understood not, believed not; and he dwelt with beasts; falling lower than all the rest.

END OF THE FIRST BOOK OF THE FIRST LORDS.

Plate 4