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Chapter XVII

1. THE next morning, at sunrise, Jehovih came again, speaking through Brahma, saying:

2. As I prepared a way for My voice, be ye wise in laboring to show this light unto all peoples. Neither take ye sorrow to your souls for the latest born, even Hog; for he is also in My keeping, and his wisdom shall be the glory of the earth.

3. For is not all fact interpreted by each and every man from the light of his own standing place? Wherein error cometh into the world by the darkness of men, in not perceiving rightly the things I have created. Behold, one man seeth the forest with reference to its value in logs; another for splints for mats; another for shade to lie in; another for its solitude; and they all alike see by what dwelleth in them, but they see through their own several windows.

4. Consider, then, the injustice of man that saith: Ye shall see as I see; hear as I hear; or who saith: This I have proven for a truth, and that for an untruth; or who saith: Behold, we are many witnesses, and we attest.

5. Whilst Jehovih was thus speaking, His angel appeared and stood in the doorway of the hut, and all save Hog looked and saw the angel, and witnessed the color of the angel's hair and eyes, and the clothes he wore. And they pointed, saying in a whisper: Behold, an angel of heaven.

p. 352b

6. Then spake Jehovih, illustrating, saying: Whilst yet no one hath spoken, let one at a time privily describe to Hog the appearance of My angel in the doorway.

7. Accordingly, they all, save Brahma, told Hog all that pertained to the angel, and they accorded one with another. And Jehovih said: Speak thou, My Son, Hog. Hog said:

8. To whom shall I speak? For, be Thou my very father, or, of a truth, the Creator, I know not. God said: Who sayest thou the Creator is? Hog said: Even as the wind; the great void; without person, or shape, or sense.

9. God said unto him: For which reason I say unto thee, because of the unbelief of thy father and thy mother, whilst thou wert in thy mother's womb, thou art as thou art. This have they attested unto thee thousands of times since thou wert weaned. And they have also attested to thee as often, that during the bringing forth of thy brothers, they were in the fullness of faith in Jehovih (Ormazd).

10. Thou wert born of the earth, and can only see with earthly eyes, and hear with earthly ears, and can reason only with earthly reason. Hog said: Then of a truth I shall go down to earth and there shall be no more of me; but these, my sweet brothers, and this Goddess and this God, my very father and mother, shall inherit everlasting life?

11. God said: I would place two eggs before thee, with the birds within them nearly hatched; now with one thou shalt open the shell a little, and the young bird seeth out, but the other thou leavest closed. Sayest thou one bird will have much advantage over the other when they are hatched? Or that one shall not live, because, forsooth, it saw not through the shell? Such, then, is thy way to everlasting life. Of thy darkness will I make light that will reach unto millions. Thy sacrifice is the sacrifice of a very God amongst Gods.

12. Hog said: Because of Thy great wisdom, I fear to speak in thy presence. But thy words come out of his mouth who is the sweetest and holiest of created beings. Therefore I take courage in mine argument.

13. Now, behold, they have all described the angel in the door; alike and like have they described it in all particulars. And the wisdom of thy p. 353b words goeth to the bottom of things, not like the words of man, but faultlessly. Thou hast made me to behold I am bound as with iron hoops, and must go my way all my days. Against this I complain not; for I perceive it is not within my judgment to know even myself, as to what is good for me or not good for me. This, however, thou hast shown me. I was molded as I am; I am as I am. If I have faults, they are not my faults. Neither are they of my father or my mother; for the cause of their unbelief at that time lay not with themselves, but with thee.

14. God said: Thy words shall Vede also write down; the glory and the wisdom of the earth shall come out of thy mouth. The manner of my edifice shall be shown unto the inhabitants of the earth. Thou hast seen the king's temple and how he buildeth it. For the fine posts he sendeth his best hewers into the forest, and they choose the straightest and strongest trees, and fall them and hew them, and polish and engrave them, and the posts are set up in the front as strength and ornament. But as to the walls of the temple, the king calleth not the best hewers, but the choppers, and they also go into the forest to fetch logs, not the straightest and handsomest, but whatsoever their axes come upon. And their timbers are put in the walls with mortar and withes. And the temple is completed to the king's will.

15. Jehovih said: Of such like is My heavenly edifice; I send not winter to please one man, nor summer; nor the rain. I consider in what way I shall induce men to raise up one another and to be considerate. Through Me, thy father and thy mother and thy brethren, and all Faithists that come after these, My doctrines, learn to consider the unbelief of mortals, and the impossibility of one man seeing through another man's eyes.

16. For as I have raised you up a house in love, one to another, so will I show the wisdom of disbelief, and its necessity on the earth.

17. The foremost of all lessons is that all men shall have liberty; and no man's judgment be binding on another's; for all do not see alike, nor can they understand alike.

18. That ye shall be alike considerate to them that see not My light, or My Person, even as to them who are born p. 354 in su'is; for they are of the same flesh and blood, and their spirits have they even from the same Creator.

19. For in the evidence of the past and of the present it is before you, that men endeavor to enforce their doctrines by saying: BEHOLD THE WORD OF ORMAZD! THUS HATH HE SPOKEN! AND I AM HIS PRIEST! BOW DOWN YOUR HEADS!

20. Whereas, man shall not bow down, but hold up his head and rejoice. They that seek to enforce Me are My enemies.

21. Nor have I said of this man or that: Hear ye him, for he is Truth. Shall the Creator make one greater than Himself, and thus cut Himself off? And yet the kings and the priests of this day assume this in Ihua's name. And the mothers and fathers of many have become discouraged because of their great hardships; and they bring forth heirs that have eyes but see not, ears but hear not.

22. God said: In the days of Zarathustra, I came to deliver them that had faith but were in bondage; to-day I am come to prove three worlds unto men, and to teach them how they shall bring forth heirs with eyes to see, and with ears to hear spiritual things, with liberty unto all men.

23. First, of the earth and its fullness; second, the intermediate world of spirits, where all shall sojourn for a season; and, third, the Nirvanian worlds beyond Chinvat, where lieth unending paradise for the pure and wise.


Next: Chapter XVIII