Chapter 24
The great cities of the ancients in Jaffeth had been destroyed by Joss (Te-in) and his evil spirits, who inspired mortals to war. And for the most part it was a land of ruins, but now thousands of cities, standing beside the broken walls, were spread over the entire breadth of the land.
Jehovih spoke to Chine, saying: Now is a good time for My chosen. Behold My enemies, the idolaters; you can recognize them by their soldiers. They are weak now. They pant with the labor of their great battles. Let My people come out of their quarters and hold up their heads.
Say to them, O Chine: There is no Joss, no Ho-Joss, no Te-in, no Po, no Po-Te-in, to make you afraid. || And while the enemy rests, bid My sons and daughters arise! They shall inhabit the land that is spoiled, and cause it to bloom and bring forth abundantly. Call up My outlawed race; the enemy is sick of his wounds; his heart is ashamed and disconsolate; he is cast down.
Chine went to A’shong and gathered up many converts, descendants of the Faithists, the pure Brahmans, the line of Zarathustra, the people of the Great All One, who did not accept Gods and Lords. And he established them, and invented plows and mattocks for digging the ground; for these implements had been lost and destroyed, since hundreds of years, and no man knew how to make them.
Chine said to them: This is a good philosophy: Do not wait till you are well fed and clothed before you bow your heads down at the altar of Jehovih. When you have prayed and sung before Him, then go forth into the field to work. And He will bless you.
Remember the heathen, they say: First provide the natural body, and then the spirit. But I say to you, Jehovih created them both together. And he who says: First provide the natural body, never looks to his spirit afterward.
In all things give precedence to the spirit; as the Creator is over all His works, so should the spirit of man be over man’s works, and over his corporeal body also.
In that lay the foundation of the wisdom of your forefathers, the Zarathustrians. For the heathen and the idolater, who labor for self, what are they but servants to the flesh?
Those people who labor for the raising of the spirit, which is through purity, love, goodness and justice, are on the right road to become a great people. But when they strive, every man for himself, such people are beginning to fall.
Her boundaries may be large, and her people increasing, but she has a cankerworm within that, sooner or later, will let her down suddenly.
Two extremes meeting are always dangerous: great wealth and extensive poverty. It not only devolves on the rich to give their substance to the poor, but they shall go among them, teaching them and lifting them up.
He who does not do this, consider how vain it is for him to pray to Jehovih. His prayer does not rise upward. Let him first answer the poor himself. This is the opening of his own soul, so Jehovih can reach him.
Remember that all men have judgment, and that they should be perfected to see things from their own standpoint, and not from yours. Consider, then, how unjust it is to foist on any man your opinions, uncalled for. ||
Chine established families of the chosen, but limited them to two hundred; and to each family he gave one priest. But he set a limit of four thousand people to dwell in any one city.
Chine said: You have been afflicted with Gods; I was sent into the world by the Creator to deliver you to liberty in the family. I am only a man. I have no authority in myself. Jehovih, the Creator, dwells freely in me. You can attain the same.
Because He is within me, this shall be called Chine-land [Chine’ya –Ed.]. There is a time for this. My name is like a post to mark the time when the Creator began His temple of peace, which shall extend over all these people.
Jehovih says: Why will man be vain about himself? Truly I not have created one man on the face of the earth who is composed of himself. Instead he is made up of all oddities, soul and body. Consider his flesh, where he received it from, and how he sustains it. Not so much as one hair on his head is of his own making; neither is it made out of new material, but has been used over and over forever.
Nor is even his mind his own; not even his simplest thought; but he is made up of borrowed things from beginning to end, for so I created him.
He imagines I, Who created him, am nothing; but even his imagination he picked up from someone else. He gathers a little here, and a little there, and then proclaims what he knows.
Chine said: One man says: I am normal; neither angels nor mortals rule over me! Yet he has only boasted like a crazy man, who will say the same thing. Another says: Behold my wisdom! The highest of angels discourse through me. Yet he does not know whether it is true or not. Nor do any of them know the fountainhead. For if an angel says it, the angel himself is made up of borrowed knowledge.
Chine said: I saw a great mathematician one day, and he said: There are no Gods, no Lords, no angels, no All Person. Everything is void. He showed me a book he had, and I asked: Who made the book? He said: I made it; no, I did not make the cloth, nor the binding; I mean, I made the philosophy that is in the book; no, I did not make the philosophy, but found it; no, it was not lost; I mean I led myself to find the philosophy; no, a man cannot lead himself; I mean that I searched and found what was new to me. || So, very little of that book was his, after all.
I saw three angels standing beside that man, and they were laughing at him. If I had asked the angels, they might have said: No, the thoughts were ours. And had I looked further I would have seen angels behind them, claiming the same things. Yet, even they are not the highest.
So that I say to you: All things come from an All Highest, name Him what you will. The one who says: Jehovih spoke to me; || he, of all, is nearest the mark. For all good knowledge that comes to man is Jehovih’s word to that man. Whether it comes by an angel or by another man, or by the commonest corporeal thing, it is nevertheless from the All Highest.
For which reason do not bow down in worship to man or angels, but only to the Highest, Jehovih, for He is the Figurehead and Pinnacle of the All Highest Conceived Of. And in contradistinction, the all lowest; the foot of the ladder; call it darkness and evil, and wickedness and sin, and death and satan.
Do not attribute this or that to men or angels, for they themselves are not first causes, nor responsible except in part; but attribute all good, high, best and wise things to Jehovih; and all evil, dark, wicked, low things to satan.
By these terms you shall make plain to one another what you mean; and it is an easy matter to look into your own souls and comprehend as to which of these two you most incline.
The soul may be likened to a vine, which can be trained either upward or downward. And if you desire to know if a vine is up or down, you look for the fruit, and not to the fragrance. Some men pray much, but as to good works they are like a vine without fruit, but with plenty of fragrance.