Lectionary Readings for Wednesday, May 27th, 2020

Lectionary Readings for Wednesday, May 27th, 2020

Weekday Sabbath

Book of Wars Against Jehovih Chapter 45, Chapter 46

Chapter 45

1. Jehovih suffered the self-Gods to prosper for more than four hundred years; and
Te-in, and Sudga, and Osiris became the mightiest Gods that ever ruled on the earth.
Know, then, these things of them, in heaven and earth, whereof the libraries of
Jehovih’s kingdoms relate more fully that of which the following is a synopsis, to wit:

2. First of Te-in, then Sudga, then Osiris. And of Te-in’s heavenly kingdom, two vice-Gods, Noe Jon and Wang-tse-Yot. Chief high marshal, Kolotzka, and under him thirty thousand marshals. Chief general, Ha-e Giang, and under him one hundred
thousand generals and high captains. Of these, twenty thousand were allotted to the
dominion of mortals in Jaffeth; the others served in heaven, mostly about the throne
of Te-in. Chiefly distinguished as Gods on the earth were Te-in’s fourteen chief
generals: Kaoan-cat, Yam-yam, Tochin-woh, Ho-jon-yo, Wah-ka, Oke-ya-nos,
Haing-le, Lutz-rom, Le-Wiang, Thu-wowtch, Eurga-roth, I-sa-ah, To Gow and Ah Shung.

3. These generals were divided into two parts, seven each; and they were allotted equally,
of the twenty thousand rank generals deputed to the earth; and these again were allotted
each thirty thousand angel warriors.

4. Te-in had said to these fourteen chief generals: When ye come to the earth, and finding
two cities near together, both of which worship other Gods than me, ye shall
divide yourselves into two parts; and one army shall go to one mortal city and the other
to the other, and by inspiration and otherwise ye shall bring the two cities to war
against each other, until both are broken down, or destroyed. After which ye shall
inspire another city, that worshippeth me, to come and possess both of those that
are destroyed. Better is it to make our enemies kill each other than to kill them ourselves.

5. And such was the mode of warfare by Te-in in that all the land of Jaffeth was subdued
unto himself in less than a hundred years. Save the matter of a million Faithists, scattered
here and there; and of the Listians who were in the mountains and wildernesses. And
great and costly temples were built in all the cities of Jaffeth, and dedicated to T
E-IN,
C
REATOR AND RULER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.

6. Now, as to the worshippers of Joss and Ho-Joss, they were not converted but subdued,
and they worshipped their God in secret, and made rites and ceremonies whereby they
might know one another and the better escape persecution. Many of these rites partook
after the manner of the ancient rite of Bawgangad.

7. Of the great cities destroyed in these wars were: Hong We, Chow Go and Sheing-tdo.
For Hong We the wars lasted twenty years; and there were slain within the city five
hundred thousand men, women and children.

8. The wars of Chow Go lasted forty years, and within her walls were slain three hundred
thousand men, women and children. For Sheing-tdo the wars lasted twenty-five years,
and there were slain within her walls three hundred thousand men, women and children.

9. In the destruction of Hong-We there were consigned to ashes four hundred houses of
philosophy; two thousand four hundred colleges, and twelve thousand public schools. All
of which had been made glorious in the reign of Hong, the king of the city. Because he
worshipped Ho-Joss, his great city was destroyed.

10. In Chow Go there were destroyed six hundred houses of philosophy and two hundred
colleges of Great Learning. Here was the Temple of Jonk, which was dedicated to
worship of Joss (God), and which, in building, required twenty thousand men twelve
years. It had two thousand pillars of Awana stone, polished; and at the blood altar it had
twelve thousand skulls, of which the great king Bak Ho was slaughterer in the name of
Ho-Joss. The throne of worship for the king was set with diamonds and pearls; and it had
a thousand candlesticks of gold and silver. And the fine silk drapery and fine wool
drapery within the temple were sufficient, if spread out, for five hundred thousand men to
lie down on and yet not cover up the half of it. And the drapery was painted and
embroidered with pictures of battles and wars; and of scenes in heaven. For the
ornamentation of which drapery twenty thousand men and women had labored for forty
years. All of which were destroyed, together with all the great city and all its riches and
magnificence.

11. Sheing-tdo was a city of fashion and splendor, inhabited by the richest men in the
world. She had a temple called Cha-oke-king, dedicated to learning, but in fact
appropriated to the display of wealth and pageantry. It was round, with a high projecting
roof, the eaves of which rested on ten thousand pillars of polished stone. There were four
hundred door-ways to enter the temple; but, within each door-way, one came against
the square columns of precious stones that supported the roof inside; and to either side
of the columns were passage-ways that led into the four hundred chambers within. In

the center of the temple, artificial stalactites, twenty thousand, hung from the roof;
these were made of silk and wool and fine linen and painted, and of colors so bright that
mortal eye could scarce look upon them, and they were as ice with the sun shining
thereon, forming rainbows in every direction. Here came kings and queens and governors
of great learning; for here were deposited copies of the greatest books in all the world.

12. Besides the temple of Cha-oke-king, there were seven great temples built to Joss,
either of which was large enough for ten thousand men to do sacrifice in at one time. For
five and twenty years the people of Sheing-tdo fought to save their great city from
destruction, but it fell, and was destroyed, and all the temples with it; by king Bingh it
was laid low.

13. Next to these were the following great cities that were destroyed: Gwoo-gee, which
had one hundred houses of philosophy and forty colleges for great learning; one temple,
with eight hundred polished pillars and two thousand arches; thirty temples of wheat and
corn sacrifice; one feed-house, where was stored food for one hundred thousand people in
case of famine, sufficient for eight years; and all these, and the libraries of the records
of the Gods and Lords of earth, and all things whatever in the city were burnt to ashes.

14. The city of Young-ooh, of two hundred thousand inhabitants, which had seventy
houses of philosophy, and thirty-five colleges of great learning, besides many schools;
one T
EMPLE OF THE STARS, where lectures were given daily to the people to teach them the
names and places of the stars and their wondrous size and motion; forty temples of
sacrifice, seven of which were large enough to hold all the inhabitants of Young-ooh, the
great city. By king Shaing it was laid in ashes, and nothing but heaps of stones remained
to tell where the city had been.

15. The city, Gwan-she, which had thirty houses of philosophy, and seventy temples of
sacrifice, two Temples of the Stars dedicated to Joss; eighty-five colleges of Great
Learning, and also a feed-house, stored sufficiently to feed the city seven years; and there
were two hundred thousand inhabitants within the city walls. Twelve years the people of
this city fought against the incited plunderers, the warriors under the God Te-in, but were
conquered at last, and their city laid low.

16. And the great cities, Ghi, and Owan, and Chong, and Goon, and Ca-On and Jongwong, and Sow, and Wowtch-gan, and Sem-Sin, and Gee, and Tiang, and Choe, and Doth, and Ah-mai, and Conc Shu, and Guh, and Haingtsgay, and Ghi-oo-yong, and Boygonk, all of which had houses of philosophy and colleges of great learning, and public schools, and temples of sacrifice, and feed-houses, and hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. And all these cities were destroyed, and only heaps of stones left to tell where
they had been.

17. Besides these, there were more than two thousand cities of less prominence destroyed.
And yet, of villages and small cities, so great were they in number which were destroyed,
that no man ever counted them.

18. City against city; king against king; man against man; for the inhabitants of Jaffeth
were obsessed to madness and war and destruction; almost without cause would they fall
upon one another to destroy; for so had Te-in sent his hundreds of millions of warring
angels to inspire mortals to destroy all knowledge, and instruction, and learning, and
philosophy, and to destroy all trace of all other Gods and Lords, that he alone might reign
supreme.


19. And these angels taught mortals how to make explosive powder, and guns to shoot
with, more deadly than the bow and arrow; and taught the secret of under-digging a city
and blowing it up with explosive powder.

20. So, the fair land of Jaffeth, with its wisdom and great learning, was made as a
distracted and broken-up country. In all directions the bones of mortals were scattered
over the lands; nor could the land be tilled without digging amongst the skulls and bones
of the great giant race of I’huans that once had peopled it.

21. And of those who were not destroyed, one might say: They were a poor, half-starved,
sickly breed, discouraged and helpless, badly whipped.

22. And the spirits of the dead were on all the battle-fields, lighting up the dark nights by
their spirit-fires, and in the morning and the twilight of evening they could be seen by
hundreds and thousands, walking about, shy and wild! But an abundance of familiar
spirits dwelt with mortals; took on sar’gis forms, and ate and drank with them, and even
did things of which it is unlawful to mention.

23. Thus was Jaffeth won to the God Te-in. Now of Sudga, know ye.

Chapter 46
1. Two vice-Gods had Sudga, Brihat and Visvasrij. Next to these, Sudga’s heavenly chief
marshal Atma, who had four thousand marshals under him, and equally divided amongst
them to command, one thousand million heavenly warring angels. Atma had authority
over thirty thousand generals and captains, to whom were allotted two thousand million
angels.

2. Chief of the heavenly generals were: Shahara, Vasyam, Suchchi, Dev, Nasakij, Tvara,
Watka, Shan, Dorh, Hudhup, Nikish, Hajara, Hwassggarom, Viji, Yatamas, Brahma,
Goska, Fulowski, M’Duhitri, Yaya-mich-ma, Hijavar, Duth, Lob-yam, Hi-gup and Vowiska. And these falsely assumed the names of the ancient Gods and Lords of thousands of years before.

3. Sudga had said to them: That my age may be magnified before the newborn in heaven,
ye shall also magnify your own names by taking the names of Gods and Lords who are
revered in heaven and earth, for all things are free unto you. But into none others do I
give privilege to choose the names of the ancients.

4. Sudga then made the following his Private Council: Plow-ya, Vazista, Kiro, Cpen-ista,
Visper, E-shong, Bog-wi, Lowtha, Brihat, Gai-ya, Sa-mern, Nais-wiche, Yube, Sol, Don,
Mung-jo, Urvash, Cpenta-mainyus, Vazista, and Vanaiti; and to each of them ten
thousand attendants.

5. Then Sudga made two great captains, Varsa and Baktu, and he said unto them: Two
thousand million angels have I allotted to go down to the earth, to the land of Vind’yu, to
subdue mortals and have dominion over them permanently, and I divide the two thousand
million betwixt ye twain. But all other angels shall remain in my heavenly kingdom and
work for me, and embellish it, and beautify my heavenly cities, especially my holy
capital.

6. Now, when ye twain are permanent on the earth, and secured in the temples and
oracles, ye shall survey all the lands of Vind’yu, and the cities, large and small, and all the
people therein. And, behold, all men shall be subdued unto my two names, Sudga and

Dyaus; and when a city standeth, wherein the people worship any other Gods or Lords,
that city shall ye destroy, and all the people therein. City against city shall it be, man
against man; for as I am the all highest God of heaven, so will I be the God of earth, and
its Lord. And ye twain, in finding two cities to be destroyed, shall divide, one going with
his angel warriors to one city, and the other to the other city; and ye shall inspire them
against each other unto death; and when they are laid low, ye shall bring into the place, to
inhabit it, my worshippers.

7. Thus descended to the earth the two destroying captain Gods, Varsa and Baktu,
with their two thousand million angel warriors. And they spread out about over the
land of Vind’yu, where were many kingdoms and thousands of cities; and they came
to mortals asleep or awake, and inspired them to havoc and destruction, for Sudga’s sake.

8. And there were laid in ruins, in twelve years, forty thousand cities, of which thirty-seven were great cities. And chief of these were Yadom, Watchada, Cvalaka, Hoce-te, Hlumivi, Ctdar and Yigam, each of which contained more than one million souls, and
some of them two millions.

9. In all of these there were places of great learning, and schools, and temples of sacrifice
(worship). In Ctdar the roof of the temple was made of silver and copper and gold; and it
had one thousand columns of polished stone, and five hundred pillars to support the roof.
The walls were covered with tapestry, painted with written words and histories of heaven
and earth, and of the Gods and Lords and Saviors of the ancients. Within the temple were
seven altars of sacrifice, and four thousand basins of holy water for baptismal rites.
Within the walls of the temple were niches for five hundred priests, for the confession of
sins, and for receiving the money and cloth and fruits of the earth, contributed by the
penitent for the remission of their sins. Through the central passage within the temple
drove the king in his golden chariot, when he came for sacrifice; and the floor of this
passage was laid with silver and gold.

10. In the center of the temple floor was a basin filled with water, and the size of the basin
was equal to twenty lengths of a man. In the middle of the basin was a fountain throwing
up water. And on the east and west and north and south sides of the basin were four
pillars of polished stone, with stairs within them; and the tops of these pillars were
connected by beams of inlaid wood of many colors, polished finely, which were called
the Holy Arch of Suh-hagda. On the summit of the arch was a small house called the
Voice of the Oracle, for here sat the king’s interpreter of heaven and earth, the reader of
visions. And the spirits of the dead appeared in the spray of the fountain, sometimes as
stars of light and sometimes in their own forms and features, and were witnessed by the
multitude.

11. Within each of the five hundred pillars was a sacred chamber, for benefit of
the priests communing with angels. In the east pillar was an opening from top to
bottom, a slatway so the multitude could see through the pillar, which was hollow
its entire height. This was occupied by te king’s high priest or priestess, as the case
might be, and this person had attained to adeptship, so that the angels could carry
him up and down within the pillar, even to the top thereof, which was equal to fifty
lengths of a man. And the multitude thus beheld him ascending and descending.

12. In the west pillar was the library of the temple, which contained a history of its
important events for a period of eight hundred years; of the priest and high priests, and of

the kings of the city.

13. Next to the Temple, which was called Tryista, stood the House of Learning, where
congregated the wise men and women, skilled in philosophy and music and astronomy
and mineralogy. The House was made of polished stone and wood interlocked, and in the
front with one hundred and forty columns of polished stone and wood. Within the house
were the skins and bones of thousands of creatures, ancient and modern, which wre
classified and named; and with these were books of philosophy and history, all of which
were free to the public one day in seven. Next to the House of Learning was the Temple
of Death, dedicated to all kinds of battles, battles betwixt lions and men, tigers and men,
and betwixt lions and tigers, and elephants, and betwixt man and man. And so great was
the Temple of Death that its seats could accommodate three hundred thousand men,
women and children. The temple was circular, and without a roof over the arena. But the
greatest of all buildings in Ctdar was the king’s palace, commonly called T
EMPLE OF THE
SUN. This was also made of polished stone, and on the four sides had eight hundred
columns of polished stone; and next to the columns were fifty pillars, on every side
connected by arches twelve lengths high, whereon rested a roof of wood and stone; and
yet on this was surmounted another row of four hundred columns of polished wood,
inlaid with silver and gold, and these were connected to the top by other arches ten
lengths high, and on these another roof, and on the top of this a dome covered with gold
and silver and copper. From the arena to the dome the height was twenty-eight lengths,
and the base of the dome across was sixteen lengths. To enter the temple from the west
was a chariot roadway, so that the king and his visitors could drive up into the arena of
the palace in their chariots. But as for the interior of the king’s palace, a whole book might
be written in the description thereof, and yet not tell half its richness and beauty and
magnificence.

14. Besides these great buildings there were four hundred and fifty Temples of Darkness,
dedicated to the spirits of the dead. These were without any opening save the door, and
when the communers were within, and the door shut, they were without light. In the midst
of these temples, spirits and mortals congregated, and the spirits taught mortals the art of
magic; of making seeds grow into trees and flowers; of producing serpents by force of the
will; of carrying things through the air; casting sweet perfumes, and casting foul smells;
of casting virus to one’s enemy, and inoculating him with poison unto death; of
finding things lost, of bringing money to the poor, and flowers and food to the sick;
of entering the dead sleep, and of becoming unconscious to pain by force of the will.

15. Nor could any man or woman attain to be a priest in the Temple of Tryista until he
mastered all the degrees in the Temples of Darkness.

16. The angels of Sudga decided to destroy this city; and, accordingly, they inspired a war
betwixt it and the city of Yadom, which was second unto it in magnificence, and
possessed of temples and palaces like unto it also. Yea, but to describe one of these great
cities was to describe the other, as to mortal glory. For seven hundred years had these
cities lain in peace with each other, half a day’s journey apart, on the great river, Euvisij,
in the Valley of Rajawichta.

17. And the captain God, Varsa, chose one city, and the captain God, Bactu, chose the
other city; and each of them took from their thousand million angel warriors a sufficient
number, and inspired the two great cities unto everlasting destruction. Even as mortals

turn savage beasts into an arena, to witness them tear and flay each other, even so sat
these captain Gods in their heavenly chariots, witnessing the two great cities in mortal
combat. And when one had too much advantage, the angel hosts would turn the tide, or
let them rest awhile; then urge them to it again, holding the game in such even balance as
would insure the greatest possible havoc to both.

18. Eight years these battles lasted; and hundreds of thousands of men, women and
children were slain; and when thus the great cities were reduced, the Gods let loose T
HE
BAND OF DEATH, whose angel office was to carry poison virus from the rotten dead and
inoculate the breath of the living; and then in desperate madness make mortals fire their
cities, to keep them from falling into other hands. And in eight years the great cities,
with their mighty temples, were turned to ruin and to dust; and of the people left,
only the ignorant few, starving, helpless wanderers, could tell the tale of what had been.

19. Sudga had said: All knowledge amongst mortals is inimical to the Gods in heaven;
therefore I will destroy all knowledge on the earth. And this was the same doctrine
maintained by Te-in, God of Jaffeth.

20. In such manner proceeded the captain Gods of Sudga over all the land of Vind’yu,
laying low all kingdoms, and cities, and places of sacrifice, and places of learning. And in
one hundred years the mighty people of Vind’yu were reduced to beggary, and to scattered
tribes of wanderers. The great canals were destroyed, and the upper and lower country
became places of famine and barrenness. And in the valleys and on the mountains, in
the abandoned fields and in the wildernesses, lay the bones and skulls of millions of
the human dead. And lions and tigers came and prowled about in the ruined walls of
the fallen temples and palaces. Nor were there left in all the land a single library, or
book, or the art of making books, or anything to show what the great history had been.

21. Thus perished the Vedic language, the language of song and poetry, and of great
oratory. Save in a small degree, such as was preserved by the remnant of Faithists who
had escaped through all these generations, still in secret worshipping the Great Spirit.

22. Hear ye next of Osiris and his dominions, and of Arabin’ya, and Parsi’e, and Heleste:

Leave a Reply