The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 81 -
THE PATRIARCHS WITH THE CHILDREN OF THE EVENING
When Adam had concluded his speech, expressed his wish and given his blessing, Enoch, who had also been instructed by Me, bowed to the patriarchs, followed also by Asmahael from his carrier.
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Then the two hurried to the children of the evening and proclaimed to them aloud the presence of the arch father Adam, waiting for them at the border of the evening region. When they heard this, the children gathered, took all kinds of fruit and other foods with them and hurried full of respect to the arch father, accompanied by Enoch and Asmahael. When they were not far from Adam, they fell upon their faces and did not dare rise until Adam had told them repeatedly through Kenan that they were to abandon their exaggerated respect of the patriarchs and receive the blessing from Adam to justify their presence. Then they were to hear with open ears the holy invitation to the feast of the burnt offering on the holy Sabbath the following day".
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Only then did they stand up, full of fear and anxiety, acting as if their conscience was hiding many a little gnawing worm which would not prosper in the light of the sun.
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Adam, as well as Seth and the others, except for Enoch and Asmahael, were somewhat surprised and had no explanation for this puzzling behavior and became silent.
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But then Adam rose, summoned Enoch and Asmahael and asked Enoch - but Asmahael was here also free to answer: "Enoch, what is the matter with these children? It appears to me as if their hearts are oppressed and burdened with something bad.
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"Dear Enoch, and also you, faithful Asmahael, tell me or at least try to fathom within you what this may be all about.
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"For my part I believe that there must be a bad seed among the wheat. And if this is the case, we may not move from this spot until the pure grain has once more been reclaimed from the chaff and the weeds and well secured in our strict fatherly love.
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"I also find it peculiar that the beast keeps its backside to these children and does not deem them worthy of even a single glance, whereas it had stared at the children of the midday with spirited, terrifying eyes.
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"O dear Enoch! Do help us win clarity as soon as possible and thereby once more revert to the desirable order. Amen."
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Thereupon Enoch rose and said: "Listen, Adam and all you fathers! These children have become totally despondent owing to excessive humiliation by us. This humiliation has deprived them of their love for us and instead filled their hearts with slavish fear.
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We are to them no longer an object of love and childlike esteem, but an object of terror and secret contempt. If the great fear of our inner spiritual strength and might out of the love of the Lord did not deter them, in truth, they might do to all of us what Cain's self-love did to Abel.
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"O father Adam, behold, herein lies, well hidden, their peculiar attitude for which we alone are mostly at fault before them and before the Lord. Therefore, it is now up to us to make amends for this mistake.
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"The beast assumed the position it did in order to indicate to us thereby that the fault lies with us. That is why it keeps looking at us and has its backside turned to the children, showing us thereby that they have been defiled by us.
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"You are asking me in your hearts: 'When and where did we defile these children? And should it have occurred without our actually willing it, how can amends be made for this mistake?'
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"O fathers, the first part of your question, namely, how and when they were defiled, is easy to answer; but the second part all the more difficult.
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"O father Adam! Behold, it is due to the fact that through your former too anxiously severe justice because of fear rather than love of the Lord you have discriminated between the children, sending the ones to the morning region, who are extremely happy there, others to the midday there to feel always beneath the favorites of the morning, and these you condemned to the evening as they appeared to you spiritually lazy because they often overslept in the mornings. And, finally, you harshly banned the last group to the midnight because they did not agree with you in some external practices.
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"O behold, dear father Adam, if at that time you had already been quickened by the love of the eternal, holy Father as you are now, your judgments would have been quite different no doubt. Plain justice, even if bathed in the light of wisdom, is oppressive and harsh if in its background be it also somewhat hidden - a gentle ray of love does not beneficially blow through all the seven times ten water-squirting stone-cones of barren wisdom.
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"Behold, just as heavily falling water from the height does not refresh the grass, but only destroys it and under its hard drip leaves nothing but washed-out stones, it is with plain justice when it falls from the immeasurable height of wisdom. It deadens and destroys the inner life. And once life has become like a dead, washed-out stone under the hard dripping of water, it will be very difficult to grow any living little plant on such a stone.
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"For the heavy, constant pressure of the water of justice and wisdom has turned the formerly soft and loose soil into hard stone and has washed the thus deadened stone hollow. What is to become of the stone?
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Truly, unless it has been changed once more into loose soil by an excessive fire of love, any seed planted on it will dry out and die.
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"But it is not good to walk on stones and to leap over them is dangerous. Whoever falls on a stone, falls hard and hurts himself. And he upon whom a stone falls is bruised. Therefore, it is difficult to answer the second half of the question.
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"I personally am of the opinion that if these stone· children and -brothers, and sisters cannot be appeased and softened by means of all-powerful love, an even greater amount of water of even the wisest justice will no longer achieve much.
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"Let us learn from our eternally holy and most loving Father Himself how He guides all His living beings. The birds of the sky, of whatever size, are not banned to the morning or evening, or to the midday or midnight. The beasts of the forests roam through the forests in all directions. Even for the fish in the water and all the worms no barriers have been set to restrict their movement and dwelling place.
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"The Lord has not even commanded us to curse the children of Cain; why do we do that to our children, brothers and sisters and ban them to certain regions where they are constrained and become stones?
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"O father, untie the useless bonds of justice and severity and bind them with the almighty bond of holy love; then love's wisdom will become a signpost to them and they all will soon, enlightened by these new rays, recognize themselves as children of one and the same holy Father, joyfully nestle against your fatherly heart, embrace you with loving arms and call you a dear father.
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"O fathers! There lies more strength and holy might in a dewdrop than in a world full of the wisest justice unless this has love as its foundation. Therefore, let now powerful winds of love blow to melt these rigid lumps of ice to become once more fertilizing little dewdrops and let the stones be softened by the mighty fire of love so that our seed may not be planted in their furrows in vain! Amen."