The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 114 -
LAMECH'S IMPATIENCE AND METHUSELAH'S ANSWER
When Enoch had recommended to the two to follow every word from the mouth of Asmahael with particular attention, he left them again to join father Jared and waited there for a sign to continue the journey towards midnight. But this sign was not given very soon because the day was hot and the old fathers enjoyed the cooling rest under the broad and dense leaves of the Bahahania (maybe also called Bahania) tree.
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However, the two could not keep quiet, and especially Lamech disturbed the peace and began to speak again, saying:
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"Listen, father Methuselah, what was all this again? What did father Enoch, whom we had not asked for any explanation, mean with his words?
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"Everything seems to be so tense now. Every word is a sermon and the father speaks with his son as if the latter were not worth speaking to; and the son often seems to completely ignore the father's words, or at least he fails to understand them. Look, this is already the case with the two of us. Father Enoch has spoken and I at least have grasped very little of it, except that we should stick firmly to Asmahael and that we shall understand it all tomorrow.
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"But what he has said of the stone and of the life and the counsel and judgment. All that, dear father, is to me as if I had not heard it at all.
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"If you, dear father, have grasped some of it, do tell me. However, if you have fared as I have, we can only quietly follow the example of the grandfathers and in the name of the great God patiently wait until tomorrow when we shall see what fruit of light will be appearing. So if you do know something, dear father! Amen."
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And Methuselah replied to his son: "My beloved son. Whoever would have to answer every one of your questions would need ten tongues and as many lungs. For your life is nothing but a great long-drawn-out question and there does not as yet grow a tree on earth which would be sufficiently tall and strong that upon it a fruit could mature which contained a sufficiently great answer to your question.
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"What am I to say? Did you not hear first Asmahael's words and then, in my place, those of father Enoch?
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"Do ponder this quietly and if it is the great Lord's will you should gradually receive more and more light on this subject. What is all our help, what our light if all this is not given from above?
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"All human help is useless and men's light is nothing but sheer darkness. If people want to help each other one only harms the other. And if one wants to enlighten another, he makes him only more ignorant.
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Therefore, keep diligently cleansing the holy little flame of love in your heart, then you will soon no longer need another person's enlightenment, for a tiny divine spark is worth more than a whole sky full of suns, moons and stars of the brightest and most beautiful kind.
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"So be now silent and at peace and patient until the morning of great promise. Amen. Hear this, amen!"