John Ballou Newbrough - Oahspe

14. They toiled by day, bringing within their cities the fruit of their labor; and they slept within their cities, and on mounds, at night, that they might not be molested by beasts of prey and by serpents.

15. And every city had one rab'bah (head father), who knew the way of the Lord; by the rab'bah were the altars of the Lord built, and the times of the sacred days foretold.

16. And the rab'bah made records in writing on stone; the which they taught to their successors, and to whomsoever desired to learn of the Lord.

17. And the Lord abode with them; and they kept the commandments and multiplied exceedingly in all the divisions of the world.

18. Nor was there any war in any land under the sun in those days.

19. In three thousand years thereafter, behold, there were thousands of cities and hundred of thousands of inhabitants who had spread abroad over the lands of the earth.

20. And they had built ships and sailed abroad on the seas, and inhabited the islands thereof, north and south and east and west.

Table of Contents

THE SCRIPTURES OF THAT DAY.

1. GOD said: That my people may remain upright, behold, I give unto them and their successors forever, certain sacred words which shall be to them the bond of my covenant.

2. Seven degrees of sacred rites bestow I unto my people. And no man shall take the second till he hath learned all the words of the first; nor shall he take the third till he hath learned all the words of the second; and so on, shall man learn all my sacred words; from mouth to ear shall they be learned by every man and every woman of my people, saith the Lord.

3. Hearken, then, to the words of the servants of the Lord:

4. I will serve the prophets of the Lord my God.

5. Heal my flesh, O God (iod) (gau) and cure poison.

6. The Lord is my spirit (s'pe) unseen in the heavens.

7. He is all power, and wisdom and love and anger.

8. He can heal, and he can tear the flesh, and strike dead.

9. His prophets have his good grace; they can hear his voice and interpret him.

10. The Lord is my guardian; ten times a day will I remember him.

11. God who is Lord can stop blood; choke it up, O Lord.

12. He gave blood-stopping as a power of the prophet's hands.

13. Confound my enemies, O God.

14. The ashars (angels of the Lord) shield me.

15. I will honor the I'hins, the sacred people of God. They are my brethren.

16. This was the first lesson. The Lord said to his prophets: Go to the Druks and cause them to sit on the ground in a circle, and stand ye in the midst, saying: Behold, O Druk, the Great Spirit hath spoken; I have heard his voice. His words are holy words; whoever learneth his words shall have power over sickness and poison and the flowing of blood. And, if a woman, she shall become fruitful and have great rejoicing. Hold up your hands and repeat the words of the Lord.

17. And it was so, the prophets taught the words of the Lord, to wit:

18. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He can make me to be alive after I am dead, and this is all he requireth of me, to say: Blessed be the name of the Lord. In the morning I will say it; at noon I will say it; at night I will say it: Blessed be the name of the Lord.

19. I will wear clothes to hide my nakedness, because God requireth it of me.

20. I will not steal, nor speak untruth.

21. If my brother taketh what is mine, I will not be in anger, nor judge him; but I will lay the matter before the prophets of God.

22. I will do no violence, for it is God's commandment.

23. This, then, that followeth, was the third:

24. I will have but one wife, I will not go after other women whilst she liveth. (I will have but one husband; I will receive no other man whilst my husband liveth.)

25. I will suffer no man nor woman of poison (leprosy) to come near the oe'ugah (camp). In the Lord's name, I will drive them hence.

26. I renounce them; nor will I mingle therewith, for it is God's commandment.

27. The fourth commandment, that is to say:

28. I will forswear the hunt; but whatsoever cometh and is fit food for man to eat, I will kill it. I will take up fish in the name of the Lord, for they suffer no pain.

29. I will till the soil and gather roots to eat, and fibres of barks for clothing, and live like the I'hins, the chosen people of God.

30. I renounce murderers; nor will I marry with them, nor live as they live; they are the enemies of the Lord God.

31. I will curse no man, nor woman, nor child, for it is the Lord's commandment.

32. I renounce anger and all weapons of death; they are enemies of the Lord.

33. If a man injure me, I will lay the matter before the Lord's prophet, for his judgment is holy, saith the Lord.

34. If a woman entice me, I will go secrete myself and repeat the sacred words.

35. I will respect the times of woman, for she is the gift of the Lord to be man's helpmate.

36. When my wife hath a newborn child, I will do her labor for forty days, for it is God's commandment.

37. The fifth commandment, which is:

38. The four days of the moon are the Lord's; on those days I will not labor.

39. I will keep sacred the four days of every moon, and I will repeat the sacred words of the Lord thrice.

40. And when the prophets say: Behold, the Lord saith this is a sacred day; then will I keep that day holy, for the prophets hear the voice of God.

41. When the I'hins worship before the altar of the Lord, I will keep on the outer circle, for the I'hins are the chosen servants of God.

42. When the I'hins march forth, following the prophets, I will come after, for I will honor the Lord's chosen.

43. When the prophets say: Pitch the tents here, I will abide, for the prophets cannot err.

44. The sixth commandment, which is:

45. For the sick I will provide, and for the woman with a newborn child.

46. I will give, first to the I'hins, second to the Druks, and lastly keep for mine own self.

47. To warriors I will give in time of sickness, but when they are healed, I will say: Go your way.

48. And if a man be sick of poison, or a woman sick of poison, I will go to the same. But before I go in I will say: O Lord, my God, in thy name I go in a dangerous business; come thou through thy ashars and protect me for thy sake.

49. For the Lord can encompass me around about, and I shall not receive the poison.

50. The seventh commandment, which is:

51. I will keep these holy words secret in the name of the Lord my God.

52. When the Lord commandeth, saying: Go here, or go there, or build here a city, or a house or an altar, then will I do the Lord's bidding.

53. Thus did the Lord establish laws amongst men; and because of the sacredness of the Lord's words, man treasured them and kept holy the commandments of God.

54. Now I, the Lord, reveal in this, the kosmon era:

55. My angels abode with the chosen in the days of the aforesaid sacred scriptures.

56. And when the words were repeated for the stopping of blood, behold, my angels compressed the veins. Not the words stopped the blood, but by the words mortals became in concert with my hosts.

57. And when a man went into the presence of dangerous diseases, repeating the sacred words, behold, my angels enveloped that man with my unseen blankets, and the man was protected from the disease.

58. Without such words, there could be no concert of action betwixt mortals and angels.

59. Think not that thy Lord taught a foolish thing; nor that the mumbling of words by my prophets were without wisdom and forethought by the Lord thy God.

60. Now in those days the Lord caused the rab'bah to make a wheel and hang it beside the altar. And the meaning thereof was: As this wheel is without beginning or end, so is the Creator. Whosoever turneth the wheel one round hath said: In thee, my God, I trust.