The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 168 -
THE NIGHT OF THE STORM IN RETROSPECTION. LOVE BANISHES FEAR
With a delighted and joyful heart Seth thanked the high Abedam for such a commission and hurried to carry out the Lord's will.
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On leaving the hut he immediately caught sight of the three from the midnight region. He called them by their names and they promptly responded.
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When they had reached him, he said to them: "Listen, there is One in the hut Who wants you to step inside, too; for already long before I left the hut He had heard your hymn of praise close by.
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"Therefore enter the hut where a high, unfathomable blessing is awaiting you, too."
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And Jura asked Seth: "Brother Seth, how are we to understand this? Has maybe during this night of terror the most sublime and mighty Emmanuel come to you? For behold, we all did think this when the unheard-of - one can say - global firestorm suddenly ceased.
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"We all prayed and called to Emmanuel for salvation. And when this came with such a miraculous suddenness, the first thing we did was to thank Emmanuel for it.
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Tell us whether this is not and was not the case!"· And Seth replied: "Whether this is so, dear brothers, you will soon learn in the hut. I now have to hurry to provide a good morning meal and can and may no longer talk to you here."
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The three were satisfied with this answer and entered the hut with the greatest reverence where they fell upon their faces before Adam and all the others.
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But Adam told them to rise and said to them: "My beloved children, I am very happy to see you here safe and sound.
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"I worried greatly about all of you during the night because of the terrible conflict of the elements, but much greater was my trust in the Lord, our most beloved Father Who is always holy, holy, holy in His supreme might and power, with His help and rescue. For all of us were exposed to great temptation and had to pass a crucial test. This old hut of mine had become the abode of the wildest beasts. Serpents, hyenas, tigers, lions, wolves, bears and all kinds of other creatures filled the hut and flames were blazing up from the ground. Yet our trust had to remain firm and we all soon felt the glorious effect of Emmanuel's protective blessing.
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"But go to the man also called Abedam who is still a stranger to you. He will explain everything to you properly. Amen."
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And the three bowed to Adam and then walked over to the stranger.
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Jura, as the eldest, addressed Him, saying: "Be greeted with all our heart, Abedam! The arch father Adam sent us to you that you might tell us all about this - all praise and thanks to the Lord Emmanuel! - unheard - of night of storm. For behold, we three are sons of Adam and have lived on this earth for more than eight hundred years. We were present at the flight from Paradise and following that have had many sad and terrible experiences, but never anything like this night. Such horrors have never before come over the earth, at least definitely not while we have been living here.
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"I will not speak of all the fires, nor of the mountains all around which are still emitting flames and smoke, nor of the constant shaking of the earth, nor of the countless flashes of lightning, the burning and steaming forests, fiery winds and so on; for the thunder remains the same year after year and so are the phenomena seen in the elemental conflicts which frighten our senses. But listen, good man, when the sea, the endlessly vast sea, terribly raging, rose beyond its bounds, wildly foaming and rushing ever higher and in this terrible rising began to swallow up one mountain after the other and finally even forced us dwellers in the midnight region to escape from our houses in a great hurry because of the countless beasts fleeing from the waves, when it even drove the waves so far that they swallowed up our huts, making the beasts of the forests follow us, - some of them never as yet seen huge monsters which probably, like many other animals, live in the water - and they, viciously fighting among themselves and looking most frightening, were driven towards us, look, that is something perhaps none of us will ever forget.
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"Here mainly one thing is remarkable, namely, that all these terrible scenes, when they had no doubt reached their peak, suddenly discontinued as if they had never happened. Also the sea suddenly receded and not only returned to its former bounds, but vanished so completely that no trace of it could anywhere be discovered, except for the vast stretches of muddy ground extending in all directions which earlier had been the bottom of the sea.
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"If you are willing and able, do explain these unheard-of things to us."
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And Abedam answered: "My dear friends, such events are indeed hard to take for those who are asleep in their spirit, but they are all the better for the spiritually awake.
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"Tell Me, which truly awake spirit united with the love of the eternal, holy Father will or can still be afraid, even if the entire earth were destroyed under his feet and a glowing sea swallowed up all the dusty debris of the earth?
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"Will not the mighty Father Whose will carries and carefully controls countless billions of still incomparably larger globes and spirits be capable of protecting a child that loves Him above all and is loved above all by Him too on the occasion of the bursting of an atom which you call 'earth' and 'world?
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"Behold, you will have to agree with Me that this is so. Now the question is whose fruit your desperate fear and fright was. Or why do children fear the dark?
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"Behold, the reason for this lies in the weak love for the holy Father. As is the love, so is also the trust; a weak trust is the father of all fear.
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"All the happenings you spoke about are of little importance; the only important thing is what your heart is like.
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"If I explained everything to you, this would satisfy at most your cars, but it would not lead to the cognition of your heart. Therefore it will be better if you thoroughly examined your own heart and its love for God, and I tell you that you would then learn more in one minute than explanations during millennia would give you.
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"But stay here and share the morning meal with us which Seth and his family are just bringing in.
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"Be still in your thirst for knowledge, but all the more active in your heart and your stormy night will soon turn into the brightest, quietest Sabbath. Do understand this! Amen."