The Household of God
Volume 2
Rise and spiritual prime of the first world empire Hanoch
- Chapter 263 -
THE DOUBTER, INSTRUCTED BY HIS FRIEND, ON THE ROAD TO RECOGNIZING THE LORD (1st March 1843)
After these words which were a good answer to the question put to his friend by our main speaker, the latter began to ponder mightily on how the dependent little children truly on the road of love, even though still so to speak instinctively, come most easily to the unerring recognition of their parents.
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Extending his thoughts even to the kingdom of animals and plants, he found this statement verified in a manner surprising him at first.
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From his many experiences he remembered that all animals known to him when young cling to their parents and do not leave the same until they are fully equipped with the necessary animal strength; and with the plant kingdom he also discovered that - as the saying goes - the apple never falls too far from its tree.
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After such good thoughts he again turned to his friend saying to him: "Listen, you my most beloved friend and brother, the more I ponder over your words, the more light I find in them. First they appeared to me to be quite irrelevant; but look, now they gain an ever-growing importance with me. This is why it seems to me as if they had not really grown on your own ground and soil.
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Thereby I do not mean to say at all as if I thought you incapable of such wisdom; for I know from the past that you were a very prudent man who could not be deviated from some thoroughly held opinion, not even by Lamech's prisons.
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"But you know, dear brother, here I make a little distinction, for it is one thing to talk wisely - and another to talk and act rationally and according to the intellect.
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"Obviously you have talked to me wisely, wherefore I hit upon the thought that this wisdom did not grow on your ground and soil. For it is too comprehensive, too farreaching, since for this we have always lacked vision generally, but particularly in the dungeon.
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"Since you serve me with such statements as encompass the whole of creation, I do not reckon to offend you by saying so.
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"But I also tell you that these your words brought me closer to the goal than you perhaps assume. Yes, you can believe me, also the idea of a God in human form becomes clearer and clearer, and my heart no longer resists it so much; only the disguise as a poor man I cannot quite fathom.
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"If maybe you had a word more suitable for my understanding than the excessively wise speech of that man, I would not be averse to fully recognizing the poor man as what I ought to - and now in all earnest wish to recognize him. So, if you still have some little word, do say it for my reassurance."
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And the other began to speak and said to our main speaker: "Brother, truly, if you are not blinder than the center of the earth, I will forgo my name!
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"What do you call rich - and what poor?
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"Do you call it rich if someone covers his body all over with products of either his or his brothers' hands, which products were coaxed out of natural things, or if someone built himself a dwelling out of mud and idle stones?
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"And do you call that poor if someone is without all this either compelled by the hard-heartedness of his brothers or more or less of his own free will?
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"Oh look, this is absolutely wrong! God created man in His image and put him on the earth completely naked; and still today all human infants are born naked into the world. Is for this reason the naked man the most miserable creature of God? Or is he not rather excessively rich through his Creator's image he is endowed with?
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"What if now the Creator in His primordial-fundamental human image came to us in all the fullness of His eternal love and wisdom? Can you then in your heart still criticize His primordial-fundamental nature?
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"I therefore tell you: Realize your great and gross blindness, hurry to Him and fall down at His feet so that you may have light in the worst maze of your life
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"Recognize the endless grace of having God, the almighty Creator, as a mildest Brother and most loving Father among us.
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Truly, the thought alone is too great and holy for man; and behold, here is more than the most sublime thought! Here is He, the almighty Father Himself!
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"Can you still tarry in your spirit now that all infinity trembles with immense awe?
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"Behold, He, He, the almighty, eternal God, the Creator of infinity, is waiting for you there!
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"So hurry, hurry to Him before it is too late, and worship Him from the bottom of your heart!
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"Hurry, hurry to Him, the holy Father! Amen."