Who lightens the burdens of my labour? None but myself.
Whose courage will protect me from the workers of evil? My courage.
Whose wisdom will guide me and enlighten my heart? My wisdom.
Whose will rules my destiny? My will.
Whose duty is it to attend to my wants? My duty.
Who is responsible for my future state of being? I alone am responsible.
Who shields me from temptation? No one.
Who shields me from sorrow and suffering? No one.
Who shields me from pain and affliction? No one.
Who benefits from my toil and tribulation, my sorrow and suffering? Myself, if wise.
Who benefits from my temptations and afflictions, my sacrifices and austerities? Myself, if wise.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE THIRD OF THE EGYPTIAN SCROLLS
(A Fragment)
If a man would know Heaven, he must first know Earth. Man cannot understand Heaven until he understands Earth. He cannot understand God until he understands himself, and he cannot know love unless he has been loveless.
God is unknown but not unknowable. He is unseen but not unseeable. God is unheard but not unhearable. He is not understood but He is understandable.
The goal of life is upstream, not downstream. Man must struggle against the current, not drift with the flow. A child is born knowing all God intended it to know, the rest it must discover for itself. Man does not live to increase the glory of God, this cannot be done, but to increase the glory of man.
He who worships with empty rituals wastes his time and displays the shallowness of his thought. That which man does to benefit man is good, but if he seeks to gratify God it is a labour of ignorance showing disrespect for God whose nature is above that of earthly princes. A lifting hand is worth ten wagging tongues. Be a man of fortitude and courage. Prepare to fight, for Earth gives man but two choices: to struggle or perish. There is work to be done in the Garden of God, therefore cease useless performances and word-wasting discussions, go, pick up the hoe and tackle the task to hand.
This is the secret of life: Man lives in God and God lives in man. This answers all questions.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE SIXTH OF THE EGYPTIAN SCROLLS
God is in all and He encompasses all.
There is no God but The True God, and His existence is our assurance of life everlasting. He was before the beginning and will be after the end.
He is mighty and all powerful. In His magnificence and majesty no man can conceive Him. His divine nature is beyond the understanding of man. His creation is awesome. His ways unfathomable.
His creative thought brought all things forth and the power which flows from Him is life. He holds life within His mind and the universe within His body.
If a man, in ignorance and foolishness, conceives a more understandable god in his own image or builds gods of wood and stone, that will not take anything away from the stature of God. The Supreme One is ever God, The Creator of man, and if man makes earthly gods to worship, then it is man who loses thereby and not God. Among earthly things man shall find nothing greater than himself.
Man worships, not to make God greater, for this he cannot do, but to make himself greater. Nothing man can do can add to what God already has. Men conceive God as a Being having greatly magnified human qualities, as a kinglike Being greater than any king. Thus man falls into error.
As the sun surrounds man with light, though it be hidden behind the stormclouds, so is man in the thoughts of God, though God Himself be hidden from him.
Such is our God who, though Himself eternal, lives with each man and with him passes through the Dark Portal of Death into the light of the Glorious Region beyond.
God rules over all earths and all spheres. He is in them and they are in Him. All things are in God and He is in all things. What is was to be, all things begin and end in God. This alone is wisdom, understand and live forever.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A SCROLL FRAGMENT - TWO
The Book of Initiation and Rites says of God, “All our hopes rest in God who created all things, sustaining them with His breath, whatever their state, wherever they may be, in this place on Earth, or in any other place visible or invisible”.
“He alone causes herbs to blossom in beauty and causes all things to come forth in their proper order and time, all flow from His directing thoughts. The peaceful beauty enfolding the face of the land at eventide, the melody of song and speech, the fragrance of flowers, the soft delicacy of petal and wing. All beauty and charm that delight the hearts of men flow from God”.
“His wisdom is unbounded and in His goodness He has provided all things in which He has created a need in man. The daylight and wind, food and water, heat and coolness, the materials of his dwelling and the substance of his garments, all things for his daily use and enjoyment. Man lacks nothing which would increase his skill and knowledge, to all useful things guideposts have been planted along the way. What need can man know for which God has not already made provision, even before man was born?”
“He has established the nature of all things, so they remain stable and come forth in their proper order without change. When a man sows barley he knows what will come up out of the ground, the rewards of his toil are not confusion”.
“A man lights a fire knowing it will cook his food, it is not sometimes hot and at other times cold. He knows that day will follow night and that the hours of darkness are prescribed, it is not a matter of chance. The hours of darkness are not one day long and the next day short. Oil is ordained for lamps and water to drink, man knows that never can he light a wick in water. Man looks about him and sees order, not confusion, and he knows that where there is organisation there must be an organiser”.
“The ordinances of God are established for the benefit of man, were they not set in stability man would be nothing but the plaything of chance and the victim of chaos. Therefore, on the days of feast and fasting, each following in their due season, I will ever remember the obligations due to my God”.
“I will rejoice and sing songs of praise with a full heart, I will shun the hypocrisy of moving lips. I will be joyful in the fullness of spirit at the beginning and at the end of the appointed seasons”.
‘The decrees of God are fulfilled at the appointed times and the days of labour pass one into the other. The season of first gathering to the full time of harvest, the season of sowing to the season of fruitfulness, all pass away as the kiss of the wind on the waters”.
“I will raise my voice, and my hands will move with the music. I will pluck strings and send sweet musical sounds rising to my God, and my breath will fill pipes with tunes to His Glory. When the sky blushes in the dawning I will lift up my voice in gladness, and when it reddens in the evening I will not remain silent”. “O how I rejoice that God has made me as I am! Truly He is in all and encompasses all. In His magnificence and majesty no man can conceive Him, for His divine nature is beyond the understanding of man. His creation is awesome, His ways unfathomable”.
“The love of God for His wayward children has been limitless and abounding. It has remained changeless throughout the ages, filled with His noble purpose. He created so that He might express and share that love, which is the very essence of His nature, with beings created in His likeness, beings which could absorb and reflect that love. Yet, that his love might be wholly free man was endowed with freewill, the freewill he has used perversely”.
CHAPTER NINETEEN A HYMN FROM THE BOOK OF SONGS - 1
Bring forth the instruments of music, let all voices be raised in thanksgiving to The Lord of Our Lives. Be happy in heart and let joyfulness flow from your lips, but remain in stillness while the hands move.