Lectionary Readings for Saturday, May 16th, 2020
Seventh-Day Sabbath
Book of Wars Against Jehovih Chapter 23, Chapter 24
Chapter 23
1. Not many more days passed, till Osiris called together his legions and gave them four
days’recreation and a great feast, heavenly. And after the feast was over, he thus spake
from his temporary throne on Mount Agho’aden, that is, a place in the sky over the earth
mountains of Aghogan, in Parsi’e; complimenting them, saying:
2. In the light and power of life and death I speak! Greeting, in De’yus’name, highest of
Gods! In his love, to glorify you all for your great victory, this feast was spread, and my
voice upraised in your praise.
3. First, to thee, Baal, wise and powerful amongst Gods, for thy great energy and glorious
success, do I bestow the Sign of the Sacred Bird, Iboi, to be thine forever. And next, to
thee, Ashtaroth, the Goddess that never tireth, or is without a stratagem, for thy glorious
success I bestow thee with the fete, the circle and the true cross, to be thine forever.
4. To thee, Hermes, most unflinching of generals, second in rank to Lord, for thy victories
won, I bestow the Inqua. To thee, Apollo-ya, I bequeath a bow and arrow, for thou shalt
break the bonds of the creed of circumcision, and tempt mortals to wed by no law but by
the impulse of the heart. For as the Faithists have been bound by their sign to marry not
outside their own people, so shalt thou teach the opposite; for by the cross of the breeds
of men, they shall be broken off from Jehovih.
5. To thee, Posee-ya-don, I bestow a model ship, for thou shalt have dominion over seafaring men in all these divisions of the world. To thee, He-fa-yis-tie, I bestow a forge and tongs, for thy dominions over mortals shall be with the workers of metals and weapons of
war.
6. To thee, Pluton-ya, I bestow a torch and brand of fire, for thou shalt rule over mortals
for the destruction of cities and houses, to whomsoever will not bow down to De’yus as
the highest God. To thee, Ura-na, queen of the es’enaurs, the very stars of my armies, I
bestow a quill and staff, for thou shalt have dominion over the songs of the earth,
inspiring mortals to sing praises unto the Lord our God.
7. After this manner Osiris went through the list, bestowing and assigning medals, and
signs, and symbols, and emblems upon the generals and captains, and exalting many of
the privates for daring deeds done, and for victories. And then Osiris allotted to the
generals and captains tens of thousands of spirits especially adapted to their respective
work; and he placed Baal and Ashtaroth as chiefs over them. Next Osiris organized a new
division of angels, an army of one hundred millions, distributed into one hundred parts,
and called this army See-loo-gan, signifying spirits who travel about amongst mortals in
systematic order, to measure them as to how best they can be used for the glory of the
heavenly kingdoms; and to possess them, or hand them over to be obsessed, as may be
deemed profitable.
8. At Pluton-ya’s request, Osiris made his selection for him, and then further explained,
saying: To thee, all privilege in thy line. If thou find fire not well suited to destroy a city,
even though thousands of mortals be obsessed at the same time to fire it, then shalt thou
suffer thy spirits to carry virus and inoculate mortals unto death; or to fill the city with
epidemic air, well poisoned, throwing mortals into fevers so they shall die. For in all
cases, whether Baal or Ashtaroth, or any of thy superior officers, say to thee: Destroy thou
that city, or this city, or that family, or this family, or that man or this man; thou shalt so
fall upon the man or place as commanded, and accomplish it.
9. And now, with due ceremonies, and with excellent music, the assemblage was
commanded back to the earth to resume work. And Osiris’messengers bore the news
to De’yus, well exaggerated, extolling the fidelity of Osiris to the highest.
10. From this time forth no masterly raids were made by the Osirians, but they improved
the well-adapted times to give to mortals an abundance of wonders in angel
manifestations; the which bait mortals caught at eagerly. And they were, for the most part,
easily persuaded to follow angel advice, and so fell to work and built temples, and
established oracles of their own; obliterating the doctrine of the Great Spirit, and
substituting the words: The Lord God, and De’yus, and Anubi, his holy Son and Savior
and Judge of the world; and Osiris, God’s commanding Lord of the earth. And mortals
traveled about throughout all regions, preaching and explaining spirit communion, and
establishing the Anubian rites and ceremonies, but never using the names Great Spirit or
Jehovih, save but to deride and accurse. The rites taught virtue, and love, and truth, and
the acquisition of knowledge, but taught not peace, but war, which was maintained to be
justifiable if done for the glory of the Lord, or for the Lord God, or for the Son, the
Savior, Anubi, whose sign was a pair of scales, and who was sometimes called Judge, and
Keeper of the Gate that led to the upper heaven, Hored.
11. Wherefore it came to pass that the mortal adherents of Osiris began to war on the
Faithists and take their possessions. And inasmuch as the Faithists, by their pledges to
Jehovih, dared not resist by weapons of death, but only by walls around their cities, and
by stratagems, and by running away, the Osirians had easy victories in most instances.
12. In ten years the Osirians began to build great cities, after the manner of the ancients;
and to gather in their plunder taken from the Faithists.
13. And Osiris, and Baal, and Ashtaroth, through their angel hosts, chose from amongst
mortals the largest and strongest, most war-like, and by means of the oracles, declared
them kings and queens, and instructed them in building palaces and having thrones, after
the manner of Lords and Gods. And directed mortals how to make themselves powerful
by organization and obedience to the kings and queens, who were recognized as adopted
sons and daughters of the Lord God.
14. Now it came to pass, in course of time, that in consequence of the great abundance of
angel manifestations, mortals sought by this means to obtain knowledge of heaven and
earth, and especially in regard to the end of man.
15. And the Osirian hosts, being the only angels engaged in the matter of establishing
De’yus, answered them, saying: The life and the end of man are to glorify God, who is
Lord of heaven and earth.
16. And the mortals pressed the matter further, asking: Who is God? What are
the worlds? Whence came all things? How were the creation and the Creator?
17. For an answer to these questions, Osiris sent messengers to the Lord God in Hored;
whereupon De’yus called a Council of his God and Lords, to meet in Hored, to solve
the matter, that a uniform answer might be given unto all the divisions of the earth.
18. In the meantime, and before the Council assembled, the self (satan) of De’yus spake
to him, saying: If thou admit a Creator save thyself, thou art undone. For is this not
the point whereon hang the power and dominion of Jehovih? The Lord God inquired
of satan, saying: Why spakest thou not of this before? Behold, the Great Spirit
signifieth everywhere. But I am only as a man, small, compared to the size of the worlds!
19. Satan said: It mattereth not; thou shalt say thou wert the Creator of heaven and earth.
20. De’yus said: But this is not truth? When thou persuadest me to assume dominion of
earth, thou saidst: Be thou Truth in all things. How, then, shall I say, I created heaven and
earth? Satan said: When Osiris hath come before thee, say thou to him: Who hast thou
found amongst mortals to be the greatest and wisest, best su’is? And when he telleth thee,
say thou to him: Osiris, my son, him thou sayest is the greatest su’is shalt thou inspire in
person. And thou shalt cause him to write answers to the questions of mortals, that the
learned and the ignorant alike may know me and my kingdoms. Behold, before my time
both heaven and earth were void as to a Godhead, save to the servants of Jehovih. And
because they were void in this respect, thou shalt persuade thy seers to know I created
them from voidance unto mine own glory.
Chapter 24
OF THE JAFFETHAN ASSAULT.
1. Anuhasaj, alias the Lord God, had said to Te-in, the false, to whom he gave in
charge Jaffeth and her heavenly places: In the self same time that Osiris and his hosts
fall upon the divisions of the earth, even in that day and hour shalt thou and thy hosts
fall upon Jaffeth (China), possessing the temples and altars, and places of oracles,
where they serve the Great Spirit under the name Ormazd, and thou shalt subdue them
to me under the name Joss, who is and ever shall be Ho-Joss of heaven and earth.
2. So Te-in, the false, with his thousand million warriors sped forth, downward, to the
earth, wide spread his army, to cover the whole of Jaffeth, in hope to capture it suddenly.
And even as Osiris plunged into the temples and oracle-houses, and about the altars, in
the dead of night, to drive away Jehovih’s guardian angels, so, like him, and even worse,
Te-in was baffled and repulsed, and saw the morning sun arise upon his shame in total
failure. And then he, too, with his mighty legions, went stalking about, all day long on the
earth, waiting for the next night’s assault on sleeping mortals, and to receive new orders
from the Lord God, as to the next proceeding.
3. Then came the second night, and Te-in went in, with his army, furious because of the
last night’s cowardly failure. And to the sleeping mortals, men, women and children, hied
them with oaths and loud boastings, threatening Jehovih’s angels with the tortures of hell
if they did not instantly resign all unto Ho-Joss, the all highest ruler, dweller in Hored.
4. But faithful stood the Jehovians; laid their hands on the sleeping mortals, and became
all powerful against the terrible odds, and held them in abeyance again, till the sun arose
and scattered Te-in’s hosts, ashamed and sulky, in most pitiful defeat. Of which news Tein now, most painfully, sent to his commanding God.
5. To him, even as to Osiris, De’yus sent word to next attack the houses of the men of
learning, the unbelievers; and the ignorant, the superstitious; to abandon, for the present,
the arcs, and temples, and oracle-houses, and the Faithists, firmly sworn. De’yus said:
Send thou thy numerators and mathematicians; and measure and mark all mortals in
Jaffeth, as to the vulnerable points, and map their localities; and when thou hast
completed this work, set apart another night for an attack upon them. And thy hosts shall
fall not upon the Faithists who are firm in the Great Spirit, Ormazd, but upon the weak
and disbelieving, the skeptical and much learned philosophers, who are weak in spirit,
and thou shalt not fail.
6. So Te-in enumerated the Jaffethans, as commanded, marking them as to their
vulnerable points, whether in disbelief in spirit, or if given to lust, or to hasty passions, or
to telling lies, or to stealing, or to murder, or to hypocrisy, or to desire for leadership. And
before the time of battle, Te-in knew the grade of every mortal in Jaffeth. And he called
his generals and captains before him in his heavenly place, Che-su-gow, over the Chesain
Mountains, twenty miles high, showing them the lists and maps.
7. Take these, he said, and distribute them before my mighty armies, and ere tomorrow
night they shall learn every mortal’s place and quality; and in the night my legions
shall rush upon the places, laying hands on the sleeping mortals, thus gaining power;
and they shall hurl missiles, with terrible noises, through the houses of the sleepers,
and so arouse them to awake and behold the war of heaven carried to their homes.
8. The generals and captains took the lists and maps, and had millions of copies made of
them, and then sent them into all the regions of De’yus’militants; and besides sent
proclaimers, millions and millions, with terrible oaths against the Great Spirit, but
who extolled the magnificence of De’yus to the utmost; appealing to their love
of independence, and to their power to cast off all other rulers forever, save Ho-Joss.
9. And now, when the night of battle came, the infuriated angel warriors of Te-in
marched in lines, millions strong, toward the sleeping mortals. Spread abroad their great
armies, covering the land of Jaffeth from east to west and from north to south. Over
Glang’e’loe, the CITY OF THE SUN, were sent thirty millions of Te-in’s warring angels, sworn
to objurgate the people of great learning, alive or dead, and scatter the angels of Jehovih,
or bind them and cast them into hell. Over the city of Pen Goo were Te-in’s hosts, twenty
millions; and over the cities of Tsee, and Wung, and Ha-tzo, and Ne King, and Zoo Wun,
each twenty millions of Te-in’s angels of war.
10. Besides these there were millions and millions stationed over the great valley of Wan,
and in the mountains of So-Jon. In the plains of Wow Gan were stationed seventy
millions. Five millions were allotted to each of the following cities, to wit: Sum Conc,
Ah-gee, Ah-sin, Chang-ha, Gee Oooh-young, Gwan Gouk, Na’tji, Yuk Hoh, Ah Tosh, Ah
Koan, Chaung, Shon, Nufow, Zow, Lin, Gee Bak, Ow-wa, Tdong, King-do, Ghi Sam,
Seung, Chog, Doth, Jawh, Bing-Tah, Gha, Haih, Hung, Wing-tze, Ni Am, Ah Sam and
Zow-lin.
11. In the mountains of Witch How Loo were stationed eighty millions, laying for the
Listian breed of men. On the borders of the sea, for sea-faring men, and for their wives
and children, were one hundred and ninety millions of Te-in’s angel soldiers, ready for the
assault. Besides these there were tens of thousands of smaller armies, stationed in the
small cities and country places, waiting for the signal.
12. Now, in this age, Jaffeth had attained to great wisdom in many things, especially save
in war, in which her people were as babes. More than half her people were Faithists,
followers of Po, worshippers of the Great Spirit. And they practiced peace and dwelt in
communities. Even many of the cities were in families of tens, and hundreds, and
thousands, but nowhere more than two thousand. And the city families were after this
manner, that is to say: The manufacturers of cloth of wool, one family; of cloth of linen,
another family; of cloth of silk, another family; of leather, another family; of paper,
another family; of transportation, another family; and so on, till all departments were full;
and of these combinations there were cities of fifty thousand, and a hundred thousand,
and two hundred thousand inhabitants. And in the country places there were small cities,
whose people tilled the soil and gathered the fruits of the earth, and they exchanged goods
with the manufacturers who dwelt in large cities.
13. The government was by priests, one for each communion family, and the priests, who
were called Wa-shon, were the receivers and distributors of goods, and they
ministered in the temples and at the altars of worship in the name of the Great Spirit,
Ormazd, sometimes called Po-e-tein, and sometimes E’O’lin, and by other names also.
14. Besides the schools and colleges there were HOUSES OF PHILOSOPHY, and HOUSES OF
PROPHESY, and HOUSES OF ASTRONOMY, thousands and thousands.
15. The Jaffethans were large, being I’huans, with one degree more of the brown people’s
blood in them than the Parsi’e’ans. Nor in all the world was there, at that time, so strong a
people, and clean and jovial, high aspiring, with great gentleness. And because the land
was tilled and made to bloom on every side, the angels named it the FLOWERY KINGDOM;
and because the people reveled in song, and poetry, and oratory, they were called, LAMBS
OF THE GREAT SPIRIT IN THE FLUSH OF SPRING TIME.
16. And these things were well known to De’yus, and to Te-in, the false, and to hundreds
of millions of the assaulting angels, sworn to subdue them to Ho-Joss or to everlasting
destruction.
17. But because of the power of Jehovih with the most faithful of the Faithists, the
arcs and temples of worship had stood unharmed by the satanic raid. Equally so the Teins failed to overpower the Great Spirit’s guardian angels. So now, after due preparation, the time came for another contest, this time upon the least Jehovih-like of mortals.
18. On the other hand, the true God, Son of Jehovih, sent word from his throne in
Craoshivi to the guardian angels dwelling with these mortals, so unmindful of the Father’s
care. He said: Come defeat, or disaster, or terrible darkness, overpowering your utmost
strength, still struggle ye, in the name of Jehovih. The true Faithist knoweth nothing
impracticable, but doeth his utmost for his highest light, though failure stare him in the
face.
19. For once distrust of weakness entereth the human soul, the man slideth backward
down the hill of faith; whilst he who will not consider results, save to serve Jehovih right
on, fail or not, riseth, even though his project fail.
20. With this and no other word from Jehovih, the Faithists stood about their weak and
helpless wards on the low earth, waiting for the thousand million Te-ins. But not in
any lengthened suspense, for when the sun stood with the widest part of the earth
between, the midnight hour, the militants came rushing on, with oaths most hideous,
and by their dense flood of numbers reached the sleeping mortals and laid hands on them.
21. Then, with joy run to madness because of triumph, sent hurling round about
appurtenances in the dwellings. And, in many places, with audible speech thus held forth
in the dark to the affrighted mortals:
22. From Sanc-tu I come, to lie in the dust every mortal born that will not bow down in
reverence to Ho-Joss, ruler of worlds. Give ear, O man; the anger of heaven’s Creator is
let loose upon a disobedient race!
23. And then, to give semblance of truth to the words, the angel intruders let fly such
knocks and poundings that they moved many a house on its foundation, and roused the
mortals, panic-stricken, to find the cause, or to hasten them quickly to repentance and
prayers.
24. But not all was their victory; for the Jehovians firmly held the power in hundreds of
thousands of places. And yet the Te-ins had a wonderful victory.
25. Te-in quickly sent word to De’yus, exulting, and exaggerating the victories won.
And in turn, De’yus congratulated him and his army, his thousand millions,
who, now anchored on the earth, and with mortals, frolicked about in all regions.
26. And in Jaffeth, in course of time, the same questions arose as in Arabin’ya; questions
from mortals to the spirits; as to the destination of the soul of man; as to the origin of
things; as to the heavenly places? And Te-in in turn sent word on up to De’yus, in Hored,
as to what answer should be given. It was thus, that he, too, was summoned to Sanc-tu,
in Hored, to meet with Osiris, and Baal, and Ashtaroth, and Sudga, subduer of Vind’yu.