The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 57 -
ADAM'S SELF-CONFESSION
When Enoch had ended this godly speech, Seth again rose and said: "Indeed, it is truly as you, dear Enoch, have so wonderfully and faithfully spoken to us from a high source."
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"For I notice it on myself how I constantly leap upwards in my wisdom, and when this futile motivating force has in the limited height left me to my own weakness, oh, then I always fall like these drops back into the basin of my innate nothingness where I am promptly once more swallowed up and humbled by the ordinariness and customariness and, finally, swept along by the natural draught. Only then, helplessly, do I gradually begin to recognize the great law the Lord has lovingly in His great wisdom planted in my entire nature, namely, that he whom the Lord has not given wings to fly shall in beneficial and appropriate peace stay humbly at home there to quietly and gratefully wait until it will please eternal Mercy to have also the modest droplet, which I should always be, lifted from the rivulet and conveyed towards the eternal morning where the Lord's grace keeps eternally shining and where the boundless love of the eternal, holy Father will surely not let the modest droplet perish.
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"O dear Enoch, tell me, is it not like that and have I understood you correctly? For I am sure, that it is so, and I also believe that nobody could have understood it differently.
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"Therefore, do show us all briefly that this is so, or whether it is thus!"
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And behold, Enoch was delighted, went to Seth, embraced his father and said: "O dear father Seth, rest assured for you have truly understood the voice of eternal Love as it poured over my trembling and weak tongue like the rays of a rising sun.
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"For what I speak is not out of me but solely out of the eternal love of the best and most holy Father for which my whole being in all its parts and forces shall praise, glorify and thank Him. And henceforth there shall be nothing about me, without and within me, that is not dedicated to the love, praise and gratitude to our so exceedingly good, holy and most loving Father out of Whom we and all things have come through His great mercy.
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"Therefore, it is also the case that man out of himself cannot and should not do anything, even though he may flatter himself in the feeling of a pleasing awareness of a higher life in his confined breast But, like the droplet, he shall rely completely on the Lord Who will surely educate and guide him according to His eternal love and order and certainly in man's best interest Amen."
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"Yes, thus it is! said Adam and all the present children of the main line. And Adam continued, saying: "For everything that grows on earth thrives and it all meekly and modestly submits to the eternal order of the supremely mighty God. We see daily how the sun's rays mightily draw the grass, as well as the plants, bushes and all the trees, from the dark womb of the earth. Thus the mightily gentle ray of the sun softly draws from the watery depths of the sea the cloudlets filled with a soft light, lifts them up to the firmament and finally glorifies and transfigures these cloudlets so that they, similar to the light itself, are no longer perceived by our gross senses, although they are forever imperishable to the eye of the spirit. Though this is but a corresponding earthly picture, it fully equals the high order of man who has been given a body with senses and a soul so that in it the noble fruit may develop according to eternal order towards everlasting life in God, just as procreation develops from the soul through the power of love out of God and His order to a new immortal fruit
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"O children, behold, the Lord has prepared a speaker for us and opened his eyes and through him made our ears more receptive so that we are now beginning to understand the holy Father's great purpose with us. And since we have here to our great joy heard the wise interpretation of this my favorite spot, let us now continue on our way, for the earth carries many still unknown treasures and so let them become a further pasture for our spirit. Amen."
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And behold, the party of the first men on earth thanked Me silently, then rose and walked towards morning and the exit and there, through a narrow passage, into the bright open air. There they remained for a while, quite surprised, following with their eyes the rippling, clear rivulet and noticing further down how soft mists were rising from the rivulet upwards to the free spheres of light and how they, clarified through the warmth, vanished from their sight. Now they all clearly understood this scene of nature and with pleasure recognized themselves in it. They praised Me in the depth of their hearts feeling great joy and, finally, continued their walk across a rather extensive tableland where many families were living. When they already from a distance caught sight of the more than snow-white arch father they hurried in great numbers to the much-used path, had themselves blessed by Adam and then praised My name. And the sound of their pure voices carried far across the distant mountains inviting all the children living there to the Sabbath rest on the following day, when an offering due to Me would be burnt.
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And behold, thus the patriarchs walked on with exultant hearts far out to where an extremely tall snow-white rock blocked their way, and where they again sat down on the ground surrounded by thousands of children who were all busily providing their patriarchs of the main line with all kinds of refreshments, and everyone felt happy when his loving gifts were blessed.
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Behold, at this place of rest Adam looked up to the high and vast pinnacles of this rock mountain reaching to the skies and remained for a long time silent and deep in thought and no one dared ask him what he might be seeing. Thus the loud rejoicing of the children became silent for a while, for they all noticed tears in the eyes of the father.
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They all pondered on what he would do and, except Enoch, no one noticed what was happening in Adam's soul.
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Finally, he took his eyes off the steep walls of this rock, quietly surveyed the assembled crowd of his children and at last said, deeply moved:
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"Oh, it is all my own fault! O great, holy and just God, why did you allow my sin to grow into such a mountain? I am still alive and the mountain reaches almost to heaven; how high it will have grown by the end of all times!
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"I am beholding this on the Pre-Sabbath, surrounded by a thousand children, resting here at the rock of my sin. And thus also the last man will one day here alone, deprived of all living beings and children, gaze sadly upwards to the eternal pinnacles of the shining worlds in God's infinity and wait longingly for the mountain to collapse and crush him and bury under its debris the last drop of my great guilt.
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"O children, look, up there where it is still smoking and burning I came into existence and have sinned in the presence of God and the earth!
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"There I was still perfect and all creatures were subject to me and comprehensible from the center of the earth up to that high and last World of worlds which no spirit's thought will ever reach.
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"And what has this guilt made of me? What have I become in the night of my sin? Nothing but a miserable worm in the dust of the earth, hardly still able to carry around the little bit of most miserable life within him.
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"O children, whoever of you could fall from the last, most distant star above down to the last, most distant star in the depth, behold, he would hardly have performed. The jump of a grasshopper compared to the fall from my height to this indescribable depth.
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"Already up there in my earthly beginning I was submitted to the greatest, most humbling self-knowledge and knew myself and fell on that account even deeper, yes, to this place I had to fall and my feet even deeper through Cain.
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"Oh for this indescribable fall! I, who except for God had none like me, have now to ask my children for instruction and bread!
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"However, since this is the situation, let it be so in the name of Him Whom it pleased to make of me what I now am in the presence of all! Amen."
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Having ended this sad monologue, he began to weep and his dejected state saddened all those present, except Enoch. And the burden, which grieved Adam, Eve felt twice as heavy, but she tried to hide her tears so as not to make Adam even sadder. Thus this depressing state lasted for almost an hour, until Seth went to the father, dried the tears from his face and said:
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"O father, do not weep because the Lord did this to you. If you were a bad father, how could we love you as our father!"
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"We have never found anything bad about you, but all we found and what we have received from you was good, is good and will remain good. Therefore, all of us at all times bring you all our love and respect willingly as a truly childlike offering of thanks. So, dear father, be of good cheer and do not grieve at the most wise guidance of the almighty, most loving and holy Father!
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"For you yourself have taught us that whatever the Lord does is well done. Now if He did this to all of us how could it possibly be other than good? Therefore, it should not concern us if the Lord's ways, thanks to His loving-wise and mighty guidance, are different from what we in our immense limitation before God might wish for.
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"O father, if you once were given authority that even the sun, moon and all the stars had to obey you, this was still given to you by the Lord of all might and power and was thus not an authority out of you, but out of God.
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"What belongs to the Lord, He may take back again after His loving wise order. And in accordance with His love and wisdom the Lord does anyway only what is best and expedient for us who, thanks to His great mercy, may call ourselves His children.
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"Since He is the Father of all of us, how could He ever, considering His boundless love and endless mercy out of this, forget His children?
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"O father, do cheer up and take heart and allow dear Enoch here, as soon as the children have left again, to cast his enlightened glances at all the things here that they may become transfigured through his tongue brimming over with life and serve as pastures for our spirit.
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"So do cheer up, father! Amen."
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And behold, when Seth had ended his good and comforting speech, Adam looked at him with a brightened heart and beckoned to Enoch to comply with the wish of Seth and the other children of the main line. But he was to do this only after the others would have left, except for one who had black hair and did not belong to the tribe, but had only just fled from the lowlands. In his thirst for knowledge he had mixed with the children of Adam as great fear of Lamech had driven him to flee as a mortal to the immortals of the mountains.
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When Enoch had been given the sign, Enos, Kenan and Mahalaleel, as had always been customary, rose and told the children that on the following Sabbath they had to come to the familiar place in front of Adam's hut and bring their gifts, but now should leave for a short time as it was the father's wish so that he might have a short rest for his heart; but on receiving a sign they should all assemble once more and accompany the father to the children of the midday, from where they should then return to their homes.
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When the three had successfully completed their task and as bid by Adam brought the black-haired man with them, behold, then Adam rose and asked the stranger:
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"What has brought you here, saving you from death? Answer - or flee from the face of the father of the earth's fathers! For in your veins flows a deadly blood and on your forehead Cain's mark of death is clearly visible Therefore, speak if you are able to and your tongue can use a language Amen."
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The stranger threw himself to the ground before Adam and fearfully stammered some broken sounds, which no one understood, except Enoch.
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Then Seth said to Adam: "O father, your just zeal will cause the mortal's death. Therefore, do withdraw your justice graciously and full of blessing and let the living Enoch reanimate him so that he might satisfy your reasonable justice. Amen."
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And Adam complied with the wish of Seth's heart and said to Enoch: "Behold here a dead man from the lowlands; reanimate him and loosen his tongue that he may tell all of us what oppresses his heart. Amen."
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Thereupon Enoch rose and spoke to the patriarchs: "O fathers, how can you call this man a dead mortal when he is alive like us and is but a poor human from the lowlands! If a sick animal came to our dwelling, we would not chase it away, but care for it until its health is restored. And now that a poor, lost man has with great difficulties sought refuge with us, we let him lie in the dust before us like a worm.
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"We all have seen that he came here alive and we are well aware that every life and its preservation can only have its origin in and out of God.
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"Therefore, O dear fathers, let this man arise so that he may come to know the great God on these heights. For the love of the great, eternal and holy Father surely reaches farther than our greatest thought will ever be able to comprehend in the least.
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"Should this boundless love not touch the children from the lowlands as well? And if it has drawn one of them up here to us, we must not reject such poverty. But accept it as if it had grown up there where it is still smoking and burning, - where we still sometimes direct our glances, foolishly imagining the rock to be our fault or we that of the rock.
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"Oh, it is of very little importance to what height such a stone has grown since it is only a stone and perishable, whereas we are immortal children of God and imperishable. But of greatest importance is our love, which must not exclude any being, least of all, a poor brother from the lowlands. For we are only children of love and therein children of God. So let us act accordingly in order to be truly and worthily what we are meant to be! Amen."