John Ballou Newbrough - Oahspe

4. At sunrise the next morning the mortal priests and priestesses, led by a prophet, went into the house of the Lord, to pray and sing and dance as they had been taught by inspiration of the Lord, but many people lingered without, saying to one another:

5. I fear, I fear (ta hop)! For last night I saw lights in the house of the Lord, and I heard like singing and dancing before the altar of God!

6. Nevertheless their companions persuaded them, and they went in and sang and danced also.

7. After a time of rejoicing and of quiet the Lord said: Behold, O God, the follies of judgment, and the vain calculations of even Lords and Gods! We look upon the mature man, saying: Alas, he is stubborn in his own way; we cannot convert him. Then we desire the immature, saying: Him will I raise up in mine own way, and he shall not depart from my judgment. But we tire of his immaturity and slow growth.

8. God said: Hereon hangeth the highest testimony of The Person of Great Jehovih. The nearest blank of all the living created He man, purposely unlike all the rest and devoid of sense. Whereas, according to the order of the other animal world, a newborn babe should already be wise.

9. Jehovih said: All the living have I provided with certain paths to travel in; but man alone I created new out of all things dead and dissolved, and he shall grow forever. To the beast I gave an already created sense (instinct); to man I allotted angels. And even these have I provided with others above them; and yet others above them, forever and ever. Hence the first of man, the newborn babe, I created a blank in sense and judgment, that he may be a witness that even he himself was fashioned and created anew by My hand. Neither created I him imperfectly that he should re-enter a womb and be born over again. That which I do is well done, saith Jehovih.

10. The Lord said: Thou art wise, O God. The opposites prove Jehovih. Water runneth down hill, but man walketh up the hillside; the tree groweth up out of the ground whilst it liveth, but after death it falleth. Man standeth on the earth, but the earth resteth on that which is lighter than the earth. Jehovih saith: The life of the tree is of Me; the unseen that holdeth the corporeal earth in its place, is of Me.

11. And yet, O God, who can attain to know Jehovih? The mortal saith: When I am dead and risen in heaven I shall see the Great Spirit; but he faileth, being still helpless, yea, as helpless in his place as he was helpless on the earth. Then he saith: when I am strong and wise, like Lords and Gods, and can traverse the wide firmament, then I will see Jehovih. But when he riseth and can shape his vessel through the whirlwinds of the vortices of heaven, and he is called Lord or God, lo, he findeth the arcs and the ethea standing before him still. More and more he is appalled at thought of the Great I AM who liveth still beyond.

12. He hurrieth down to the corporeal earth to teach mortals and spirits of Jehovih, and His endless worlds and exalted heavens. But lo, the darkness of men, they say: I see Him not; I hear Him not; I believe not in Him. He is but as the wind, going without sense; as the water goeth down the hill, so is He; He is dead. He is nothing.

13. And the Lord inventeth ways and means; yea, he teacheth man to pray and sing to Jehovih, that the sounds may lead his soul upward. The Lord telleth him to wear clothes and hide his nakedness from the Lord; and the Lord sendeth angels to award him for his good deeds. And the angels of the Lord lay plots and stratagems in man's pathway to stir him up. Yea, Jehovih gave man sleep, so that his corporeal-bound spirit might see and hear heavenly things. But man loadeth his stomach, and debaucheth on intoxicating smoke and drink till his soul is buried in darkness.

14. And the Lord crieth out in despair; How weak am I, O Jehovih, before Thee! I took upon me to be Lord over men on the earth, to learn my lesson in the government of worlds. But O Jehovih, I know I fail in Thy sight. What will Thy God say when he beholdeth my little good? What pity have the archangels for Thy struggling Lord of earth?

15. God perceived the sorrow of his friend, and he said: O Jehovih, who art Almighty, how keener has Thou made our sense of our own weakness, than those who look upon us! Thy Lord is my God in the glories he hath wrought out of such crude substance, and I sing to his praises and love. Lo I have looked upon the naked man and woman of this great land, crawling on hands and feet, with no thought but to eat, and I have seen them raised up by Thy Lord and his ashars, to walk upright and use words of speech and to wear clothes and skins to hide their nakedness. Yea, O Father, I have cried out with great joy, and I called aloud unto Thee, O Jehovih, saying: Who knoweth the labor of the Lord! Will man ever forget to sing praises to the Lord God?

16. But Jehovih said: I will keep some of the tribes of men in darkness, till the last days; for man in his conceit shall be confounded; for he shall perceive that the tribes of darkness cannot put away their own darkness. Yea, man shall bow down in reverence to My Lords in the early days of the earth.

17. Thus conversed God and his Lord, as they went forth to find the mortals that had given up the places of asu and come to live in villages and cities. Around about over the continent of Jud they traveled for many days and nights. And when God had seen all the work of the Lord, he said:

18. Behold it is good. Thy toil and seclusion away from the Lords of the upper heavens are severe, but thou art fashioning the love of millions, who shall bless thee.

19. Now whilst God sojourned hither, his hosts regaled themselves with the company of the ashars and asaphs in the kingdom of the Lord, and great was the love and rejoicing amongst them.

Table of Contents

1. WHEN God's visit was ended, and the hosts notified, the Lord gave a banquet that lasted two days and nights, during which the angels sang and danced and trumpeted before God. After that God and his hosts embarked on the ship in readiness to proceed on the journey; and the Lord went up to the ship to take leave, and his host went with him.

2. God said: When dan approacheth we shall meet again. May Jehovih prosper thy harvests till then!

3. The Lord said: That is another hundred years! O God, I almost live in a wilderness. I have not ten millions of souls, mortals and spirits!

4. God said: Thy kingdom shall be mighty when I come again. May it glorify Jehovih!

5. They embraced and separated! Each gave the sign of Jehovih's name. Upward raised the ship of God, with banners outstretched, and new ornamented by the Lord's angels. And now, taking course still west, sped on above the mountain tops, like a meteor hurled from heaven. Meanwhile the trumpeters gave forth the gladly solemn sound of the march of God.

6. But ere the ship had made half its journey, an approaching light came forth from the far west, radiant and laden with hosts from the Lord of Dis, and the Lord of the earth also.

7. When the ships drew near and halted, God called with a loud voice, saying: In Jehovih's name, all hail! I know my Lord cometh.

8. And thereupon the Lord answered: Hail to thee, O God, Son of Jehovih! And they turned the Lord's ship and lashed the twain together even as they sped on.

9. Now after they had all exchanged welcome and good wishes, the Lord said: Ere we go to my central throne let us survey the continent over which thy servant is Lord of land and water.

10. And God answered: Thy will be done, O Lord. And so they journeyed for many days, oft descending to the earth in places where the Lord's angels had begun colonies with mortals, impressing man with words of speech, and to live in villages.

11. And God saw that all he saw was good and well done. So they came to the throne of the Lord and halted and sojourned for sixty days.