Chapter 18
Hear the words of your God, you who are priests and preachers and rab’bahs, and all you who have set yourselves up before men, professing to hold the key to salvation and the places of my resurrections in heaven.
Listen to the words of your elder brother, God of these heavens and the earth; behold, I will set you in judgment over yourselves; and the powers of Jehovih within you shall cry out for truth and justice.
Take your chosen of the congregation of your church, and make manifest that which you preach.
And prove that you have a good and sufficient doctrine for the salvation of souls.
Choose the best of your flock, and show your God an example of all those who do not serve mammon, but Jehovih. Seal up their mouths; for you shall judge them, not by words, but by what comes of the soul.
And you shall divide your earthly possessions with one another, being as brethren. And you shall cast it upon the altar of your church, saying: We give it to the poor!
Or if you have houses, you shall say to the poor: Come and dwell in our houses!
Do not persuade yourselves, O men of darkness, that you are not graded by the angels above; nor say to yourselves: Jehovih does not see or hear.
Nor say: When we are dead, our souls shall turn suddenly good, and ascend to the right hand of God.
Nor flatter yourselves, saying: We did the best we could under the circumstances.
I say to you in truth: You have not fulfilled the first law, which is to make clean your own corporeal bodies. Because you have stuffed yourselves with carnal food, my holy angels cannot approach you; neither can your understanding approach the place of my kingdoms.
How much less, then, have you purified your souls? As you will not put away flesh, because you love flesh, even so will you not put away self- righteousness. Because you shun the practice of labor, showing to the world that you love words, and the renown of men and caste, making preferences in your churches, having rich and poor in your congregations, this is itself, your condemnation. For you should divide your possessions with one another, putting in practice your doctrines.
Which one of you has a congregation who, rich and poor, have given up all, and who make themselves alike (as regards wealth)?
Do you say my kingdoms in heaven are like that?
I say to you: You shall be bound in the first resurrection, in hada, to all these whom you have professed to lead; neither shall you rise in heaven until the lowest of your congregations of spirits have put away uncleanness and selfishness; which is the first labor. And after this, they shall learn to practice fellowship in union, for the resurrection of others.
Do not flatter yourselves, that because you wear fine cloth and you preach, that you are not responsible also. Nor hope, that when you become spirits, you shall ascend suddenly into places of delight. You are marked by your God!
Your souls are written all over with your deeds and works and words; and you shall see yourselves as in a mirror, and of your own accord shun my kingdoms of light.
Because you have learned words, and practiced only in words, behold, I come in this day to command practice in works. Not for a pittance, but for all you have.
I have not come to destroy your religions; you have done that already.
I come to give you a religion in which all men can be as brethren.
Even the infidel shall accept the Creator and good works. For he, being the fruit of your behavior, is even in the foreground in the march of my armies.