Lectionary Readings for Saturday, May 25th, 2019

Seventh-Day Sabbath

Book of Wars Against Jehovih Chapters 42 and 43

Chapter XLII

1. God in Craoshivi prayed Jehovih what he should do to release De’yus and Anubi;
Jehovih answered, saying: My Son, thou shalt first labor for them that desire; whoso
courteth darkness deserveth not thy hand. I have proclaimed from since the olden time,
warning to them that put ME away; but in their self-conceit they denied My person and
power.

2. Wert thou, this day, to deliver from hell De’yus and Anubi, and their thousands of
millions of self-torturing slaves, they would but use their deliverance to mock My
creation, saying: It lasted not; it was but a breath of wind. For which reason thou shalt not
yet meddle with the hells of Hored.

3. In four hundred years I will bring the earth into another dawn of light. Till then, let
De’yus and Anubi and their hosts take their course.

4. God inquired concerning Osiris and Te-in and Sudga, and Jehovih answered
him, saying: Sufficient unto them is the light they have received. Suffer them also to
take their course, for they also shall become involved in hells of their own building.

5. But be thou attentive to My Chosen, the Faithists, in all parts of heaven and earth; not
suffering one of them to fall into the hells of my enemies.

6. God acquainted Ahura with Jehovih’s words; then Ahura prayed to Jehovih, saying: O
Father, grant thou to me that I may go to Osiris, and to Te-in, and to Sudga, to plead Thy
cause. Behold, the Lord God is locked up in hell; even high-raised Gods would not find it
safe to go to him.

7. Jehovih said: Why, O Ahura, desirest thou to go to Osiris and to Te-in and to Sudga?
Knowest thou not, how difficult it is to alter the mind of a mortal man; and yet these selfGods are ten-fold more stubborn!

8. Ahura said: I know, I cannot change them; to break this matter of conceit, and all
learned men are liable to fall therein, none but Thee, O Jehovih, have power. But these
self-Gods were long ago my most loved friends; behold, I will go to them as a father
would to a son, and plead with them. Jehovih gave permission to Aura to visit them, the
three great self-Gods.

9. So Ahura fitted out an otevan, and with ten thousand attendants, and one thousand
heralds, and with five thousand musicians, besides the officers of the fire-ship, set sail
for Che-su-gow, Te-in’s heavenly place, over Jaffeth. And when he arrived near the place
he halted and sent his heralds ahead to inquire if he could have audience with Te-in.

10. Te-in received the heralds cordially, and being informed of their object, sent back this
word: Te-in, the most high ruler of heaven and earth sendeth greeting to Ahura,
commanding his presence, but forbidding Ahura and his hosts from speaking to any soul
in Che-su-gow save himself (Te-in).

11. Ahura received this insulting message with composure, and then proceeded and
entered the capital city, the heavenly place of Te-in, where he was met by one million
slaves, arrayed in the most gorgeous manner. These conducted him and his attendants to
the arena, where Ahura was received by the marshals, who brought him to the throne,
leaving the attendants in the arena. Here Te-in saluted on the SIGH OF TAURUS, and Ahura
answered in the sign FRIENDSHIP.

12. Te-in signaled privacy, and so all the others fell back, leaving Ahura and Te-in alone.
Te-in said: Come thou and sit beside me on the throne. Ahura said: Because thou hast not
forgotten me I am rejoiced. And he went up and sat on the throne. Te-in said: Because
thou art my friend I love thee; because thou art beside me I am rejoiced. It is more than a
thousand years since mine eyes have beholden thee. Tell me, Ahura, how is it with thyself
and thy kingdom?

13. Ahura said: As for myself I am happy; for the greater part, my kingdom is happy also.
My trials have been severe and long enduring. But of my four thousand millions, more
than half of them are delivered beyond atmospherea, high raised; and of the others they
grade from fifty to ninety.

14. Te-in said: And for thy more than two thousand years’toil, what hast thou gained by
striving to raise up these drujas? Ahura said: This only, O Te-in, peace and rejoicing in
my soul.

15. Te-in said: Hereupon hang two philosophies: One seeketh peace and rejoicing by
laboring with the lowest of the low; the other, by leading the highest of the high. As for
myself the latter suiteth me better than the former. I tell thee, Ahura, all things come of
the will; if we will ourselves to shut out horrid sights and complainings, such as the poor
druk and the druj indulge in, we have joy in a higher heaven. To me it is thus; sympathy is
our most damnable enemy, for it bindeth us to the wretched and miserable. To put away
sympathy is to begin to be a great master over others, to make them subservient to our
wills.

16. Ahura said: Is it not a good thing to help the wretched? Te-in answered: To help
them is like drinking nectar; to make one’s senses buoyant for the time being. That is
all. They relapse and are less resolute than before, but depend on being helped again.
For which reason he who helpeth the wretched doth wrong them woefully. To make
them know their places, this is the highest. For hath not even the Gods got to submit
to their places. To learn to be happy with one’s place and condition is great wisdom.

17. Herein have thousands of Gods fallen; they helped up the poor and wretched; as one
may, in sympathy to serpents, take them into his house and pity them. They immediately
turn and bite their helpers. But speak thou, O Ahura; for I have respect to thy words.

18. Ahura said: If a man plant an acorn in a flower-pot, and it take root and grow, one of
two things must follow: the growth must be provided against or the pot will burst. Even
thus draweth, from the sources around about, the lowest druj in heaven. None of the Gods
can bind him forever. Alas, he will grow. All our bondage over them cannot prevent the
soul, soon or late, taking root and growing. How, then, can we be Gods over them
forever?

19. Te-in said: Thou art a God over them; I am a God over them. Where is the difference?
Ahura said: I am not in mine own name; though I am God over them, yet am I not God
over them. For I teach them they shall not worship me, but Jehovih. I train them that I
may raise them away from me. Neither do my people serve me, but serve the Great Spirit.
Thou teachest thy drujas that thou art the all highest, and that they shall be contented
to serve thee everlastingly. Thou dost limit them to the compass of thy kingdom. I do
not limit my subjects, but teach them that their progression is forever onward, upward.

20. Te-in said: How do we not know but the time will come unto them, and they shall
say: Alas, I was taught in error. They told me there was a Great Spirit, a Person
comprising all things, but I have found Him not. Will they not then revolt also? Was not
this the cause of De’yus’fall? He had searched the heavens to the extreme, but found not
Jehovih. Then he returned, and possessed himself of heaven and earth. Although he
failed, and is cast into hell, it is plain that his sympathy for drujas caused his fall. From
his errors, I hope to guard myself; for I shall show no sympathy for the poor or wretched;
neither will I permit education on earth or in heaven, save to my Lords or marshals. When
a mortal city pleaseth me not, I will send spirits of darkness to flood it unto destruction.
Yea, they shall incite mortals to fire the place, and do riot and death. Thus will I keep the
drujas of heaven forever busy playing games with mortals, and in bringing provender and
diadems to forever glorify my heavenly kingdom.

21. Ahura said: Where in all the world hath a self-God stood and not fallen? Te-in said:
Thou mayst ask of mortals: Where is a kingdom or a nation that stood, and hath not
fallen? Yet thou perceivest nations continue to try to found themselves everlastingly. But
they are leveled in time. Things spring up and grow, and then fall into dissolution. Will it
not be so with ourselves in the far future? Will we not become one with the everchanging elements, and as nothing, and wasted away?

22. Ahura said: One might say of man and spirits: There were some seeds planted; and
many of them rotted and returned to earth; but others took root and grew and became
large trees. But yet, is it not true also of the trees that they have a time? For they die, and
fall down, and rot, and also return to earth.

23. Ahura continued: Admit this to be true, O Te-in, and that the time may come when
thou and I shall pass out of being, doth it not follow that for the time we live we should
contribute all we can to make others happy?

24. Te-in said: If by so doing it will render ourselves happy, with no danger to our
kingdoms, then yea, verily. For which reason are we not forced back after all to
the position that we shall labor for our own happiness, without regard to others?
One man delighteth in art, another in philosophy, another in helping the poor and
wretched; and another in eating and drinking, and another in ruling over others; shall not
they all have enjoyment in the way of their desires? Shalt thou say to him that delighteth
in eating and drinking: Stop thou; come and delight thyself helping the wretched!

25. Ahura said: This I have seen; the intelligent and clean have more delight than do the
stupid and filthy; the rich more enjoyment than the poor. As for ourselves, we delight
more in seeing the delighted than in seeing the wretched. More do we delight to see a
child smile than to hear it cry; but there be such that delight more to make a child cry than
to see it smile; but such persons are evil and take delight in evil. Shall we, then, indulge
them in their means of delight? Or is there not a limit, as when we say: All men have
a right to that which delighteth themselves, provided it mar not the delight of others?

26. Te-in said: Thou hast reasoned well. We shall delight ourselves only in such ways as
do not mar the delight of others. Whereupon Ahura said: Then am I not delighted with the
manner of thy kingdom; and thou shouldst not practice what giveth me pain. Because
thou hast resolved to educate not mortals nor angels, thou hast raised a hideous wall in
the face of Gods.

27. Te-in said: This also wilt thou admit: that as we desire to delight ourselves
we should look for the things that delight us, and turn away from things that delight
us not. Therefore, let not the Gods turn their faces this way, but to their own affairs.

28. Ahura said: Thou art wise, O Te-in. But this I have found; that something within us
groweth, that will not down nor turn aside. In the beginning of life we look to ourselves,
which is the nature of the young; but when we grow, we take a wife, and we delight to see
her delighted; then cometh offspring, and we delight to see them delighted. After this, we
delight to see our neighbors delighted; and then the state, and then the whole kingdom.
This delight to be delighted groweth within us; and when we become Gods we delight no
longer in the delight of a few only, but we expand unto many kingdoms. As for myself, I
first delighted in the delight of Vara-pishanaha; but now I delight to see other Gods
and other kingdoms delighted. For that, I have come to thee. I fear thy fate. I love thee.
I love all thy people, good and bad. Behold, this I have found, that it is an easier matter
to suffer a river to run its course than to dam it up; to dam up a river and not have
it overflow or break the dam this I have not found. The course of the spirit of man
is growth; it goeth onward like a running river. When thou shuttest up the mouth,
saying: Thus far and no farther! I fear for thee. I tried this matter once; I was flooded;
the dam was broken. I see thee shutting out knowledge from mortals and angels; but
I tell thee, O Te-in, the time will come when the channel will be too broad for thee.

29. Te-in said: How shall I answer such great wisdom? Where find a God like unto thee,
O Ahura? And yet, behold, the Lord God, Anuhasaj, toiled with thee hundred of years,
and learned all these things; yea, he traveled in the far-off heavens, where there are Gods
and kingdoms which have been for millions of years. And he came back and renounced
the Great Person, Jehovih. He said: All things are not a harmonious whole; but a jumble;
a disordered mass, playing catch as catch can.

30. Ahura said: And what hath befallen him? And is here not a great argument? For we
behold in all times and conditions and places, in heaven and on earth, wherever people
assume doctrines like unto his, they begin to go down into hell. They flourish a little
while, but only as a summer plant, to yield in the winter’s blast. For this I have seen for a
long time coming against these heavens, even thine, that, as darkness crushed De’yus, so
will thy heavenly dominions soon or late fall, and in the shock and fray thou wilt suffer a
fate like unto De’yus.

31. Te-in said: For thy wise words, O Ahura, I am thy servant. I will consider thy
argument, and remember thee with love. In a thousand years from now I may be wiser;
and I may have my kingdom so built up that it will be an argument stronger than words.
Hereupon the two Gods brought their argument to a close, and Te-in signaled his viceGods and marshals, and they came; and when Ahura and Te-in had saluted each other,
Ahura was conducted away from the place of the throne, and after that beyond the capital.
The vice-Gods and marshals delivered him to his own attendants, and with them he
embarked in his otevan, and set sail for Sudga’s heavenly kingdom, over the land of
Vind’yu.

Chapter XLIII

1. Sudga, after assuming a heaven unto himself, moved it over the Nua Mountains and
called it Hridat, in which place he had eight thousand million angel slaves, after the same
manner as Te-in’s. Sudga’s capital city, Sowachissa, his highest heavenly seat, was
modeled after the fashion of Sanc-tu, De’yus’heavenly place in Hored, at the time of its
greatest magnificence.

2. The capital house of Sudga was made of precious stones and gems, the work of
thousands of millions of angels for many years. And when Hored was pillaged, prior to
De’yus’being cast into hell, millions of its most precious ornaments were stolen and
brought to Hridat. The streets of Hridat were paved with precious stones; and an arena
surrounded the palace on every side, set with crystals of every shade and color, and of
every conceivable manner of workmanship. On the borders of the arena stood five
hundred million sentinels, arrayed in gorgeousness such as only Gods had looked upon.
Inside the line of sentinels were one million pillars of fire, kept brilliant day and night, by
the toil of five hundred million slaves. Inside the line of the pillars of fire were one
million marshals, so arrayed in splendor one could scarce look upon them. These were
watch and watch, with two other groups of one million each, and they stood watch eight
hours each.

3. None but the vice-Gods and the high marshals could cross the arena to the palace,
walking, but must crawl on their bellies; and for every length crawled, they must kiss the
pavement and recite an anthem of praise to Sudga, who now took both names, Sudga and
Dyaus. Neither must any one repeat the same anthem twice, but it must be a new anthem
for each and every length of the person. For a tall person, a thousand lengths were
required, from the line of marshals to the palace, a thousand anthems. So that only the
few, as compared to the millions, ever laid eyes on the throne of Sudga. And after they so
beheld him on the throne, for they were only permitted to gaze but once on him, and that
at a great distance, and amidst such a sea of fire they scarce could see him, then they must
re-crawl back again to the place of beginning, again reciting another thousand anthems.

4. Which made Sudga almost inaccessible, and permitted only such as were favored to
even look upon him, which with the ignorant is a great power.

5. When Ahura came to the capital and sent word to Sudga who he was, praying
audience, Sudga gave orders to admit him, commanding Ahura to walk upright into his
presence, along with the vice-Gods. Accordingly, in this manner Ahura came before
Sudga, and saluted in LOVE AND ESTEEM, answered by Sudga in FRIENDSHIP OF OLD. The
latter at once commanded privacy, and so all others withdrew, and Ahura and Sudga went
up and sat on the throne.

6. Sudga said: Because thou hast come to see me I am overflowing with joy. Because
I know thou hast come to admonish me for my philosophy and the manner of
my dominions, I respect thee. Because thou didst once try to found a kingdom of
thine own, and failed, I sympathize with thee; but because thou wentest back on
thyself and accepted Jehovih, and so was rescued from thy peril, I commiserate thee.

7. Ahura said: To hear thy gifted tongue once more is my great joy. To know that no
misfortune was in store for thee and thy kingdom would give me great delight. Because I
love thee, and the people of thy mighty, heavenly kingdom, I have come to admonish thee
and plead for Jehovih’s sake. As for myself, I have found that to cast all my cares on Him,
and then turn in and work hard for others, these two things give me the greatest
happiness.

8. Sudga said: Can a brave man justly cast his cares upon another? Was not thyself given
to thyself for thyself? If so, thou desirest none to work for thee? If so, how hast thou a
right to work for others? If thou prevent them working out their own destiny, wrongest
not thou them? Moreover, thou sayest: To cast thy cares on Jehovih, and to work hard for
others, these two give thee the greatest happiness: Wherefore, art thou not selfish to work
for thine own happiness? For is not this what I am doing for myself in mine own way.

9. Ahura said: Grant all thy arguments, O Sudga, where shall we find the measure of
righteous works but in the sum of great results? For you or I to be happy, that is little; for
a million angels to be happy, that is little. But when we put two kingdoms alongside, and
they be the same size, and have the same number of inhabitants, is it not just that we
weigh them in their whole measure to find which of the two kingdoms hath the greatest
number of happy souls? Would not this be a better method of arriving at the highest
philosophy?

10. Sudga said: Yea, that would be higher than logic, higher than reason. That would be
the foundation of a sound theory.

11. Ahura said: And have we not found, both in heaven and earth, that all kingdoms that
are overthrown have the cause of their fall in the unhappiness and disaffection of the
ignorant. As soon as the masses begin to be in unrest, the rulers apply vigorous measures
to repress them, but it is only adding fuel to the fire; it deadeneth it awhile, but only to
have it burst forth more violently afterward.

12. Sudga said: Thou reasonest well, O Ahura; go on. Ahura said: How, then, shall we
determine the happiness of two kingdoms, in order to determine which hath the greater
happiness? Are not revolts evidence of unhappiness? Hear me, then, O Sudga; where, in
all the Jehovihian heavens, hath there ever been a revolt? And on the earth, where have
the Jehovihians, the Faithists, rebelled against their rulers? Behold, in the far-off etherean
heavens, the Nirvanian fields, hath never been any God or Chief environed in tortures. As
for my own kingdom, my people will not rebel against me, nor need I fortify myself
against disaster.

13. Sudga said: Thou art wise, O Ahura. The only way to judge a kingdom’s happiness is
by the peace and contentment and civility of its people toward one another, and by
the confidence betwixt the ruler and the ruled. He who hath to guard himself liveth on
the eve of destruction of his kingdom and himself. And yet, O Ahura, remember this:
the Jehovihians of heaven and earth are high raised ere they become such; any one can
be a ruler for them, for they know righteousness. But I have to deal with druks and
drujas. How, then, canst thou compare my kingdoms with the Nirvanian kingdoms?

14. Ahura said: Alas, O Sudga, I fear my arguments are void before thee. Thou showest
me that the line betwixt selfishness and unselfishness is finer than a spider’s web. Even
Gods cannot distinguish it. And yet, behold, there was a time when I said: I will be a
mighty God, and bow not to the Unknown that brought me into being. For this I labored
long and hard; the responsibility of my kingdom finally encroached upon my happiness.
Long after that I put away all responsibility, and made myself a servant to Jehovih. Then a
new happiness came upon me, even when I had nothing that was mine in heaven and
earth. This is also unknowable to me; it is within my members as a new tree of delight.
This it is that I would tell thee of, but I cannot find it. It flieth not away; it baffleth words,
even as a description of the Great Spirit is void because of His wondrous majesty. Such is
the joy of His service that even Gods and angels cannot describe it. With its growth we
look famine in the face and weep not; we see falling ji’ay and fear not; with the ebb and
flow of the tide of Jehovih’s works we float as one with Him, with a comprehensive joy.

15. Sudga said: To hear thy voice is joy to me; to not hear thee is great sorrow. Behold, I
will consider thy words of wisdom. In thy far-off place I will come in remembrance and
love to thee.

16. Thus ended the interview, and Sudga signaled his vice-Gods and high marshal to
come; whereat he saluted Ahura in the sign of CRAFT, and Ahura answered him in the
sign, TIME.

17. And then Ahura, betwixt the vice-Gods, led by the high marshal, departed, passed
beyond the arena, where the vice-Gods and high marshal gave him into the charge of the
marshal hosts, who conducted him beyond the line of sentinels, where Ahura joined his
own attendants and went with them into his otevan, and set sail for Agho’aden,
Osiris’heavenly place, which had been over Parsi’e, but was now moved over Arabin’ya.