2. Thou truest of Gods. O that I had struck out from the first for myself! But I will amend my time. When I am in my heavenly place I will send to the earth to my laboring Gods, Baal and Ashtaroth, to come to me, and I will make our three kingdoms into one, and mine shall be chief. And I will offer emoluments to the best, highest grades in Hored, thereby drawing from De'yus his best fruits and flowers, and I will send to him some two or three thousand millions of my superabundant drujas.
3. Accordingly, when Osiris arrived at Agho'aden, his heavenly place, he sent messengers down to the earth to Baal and Ashtaroth, summoning them at once to his presence. And they came, being attended, each, with ten thousand companions, besides heralds, musicians and trumpeters.
4. Osiris had made great preparation for them. His receiving hosts, one million, were newly adorned for the occasion. The roadway, for three hundred miles, was illumed with pillars of fire. The Holy Council, half a million, were in extra session. The laborers, four thousand millions, were granted a day of rest. So that when Baal and Ashtaroth entered the heavenly capital, it was a magnificent scene, and as if in fact Osiris, the false, was a mighty God.
5. Great were the ceremonies and salutations between the Gods, as also with the generals, captains, marshals and others; to describe which a whole book might be written and yet not mention one-half.
6. After the reception, Osiris proclaimed an extra day of recreation to Agho'aden, and in the meantime he and Baal and Ashtaroth retired to a private chamber beyond the throne, to the east, to consult on the matters of heaven and earth.
7. Osiris said: My brother and sister, ye are my loves; the worlds are all vain else! De'yus is the most selfish of Gods, and unreasonable. He said to me: Thou shouldst keep up the grades! Now, behold ye, his own grades are broken down. As I and other Gods send him contributions in subjects, so remain such subjects; no more education for them in Hored. Then he complaineth and assumeth to dictate. And this for De'yus' glory. Not a word for lifting angels or mortals up out of darkness.
8. Baal said: A most unreasonable God. Saidst thou not to him: O that I had the power and means thou hast! What great good I would do!
9. Ashtaroth said: This I have found before, the greater power a God hath, the less he doeth for others' good. As for my part, what good can I do? I have scarce two thousand million slaves, all told! O that I had a kingdom like De'yus! But what proposest thou, O Osiris, thou far-seeing God?
10. Baal further said: Ashtaroth, thou wise Goddess, thou hast expressed mine own soul. Mine own kingdom is but little larger than thine; I am a very helpless God indeed. But once I reach De'yus' means, my soul's delight will be to fill all the heavens full of schools and hospitals! But speak thou, Osiris, whatsoever thou hast resolved is wise. As for myself I have been two thousand years trying to put myself in good position first, so I could help others.
11. Osiris said: To cut loose from De'yus; this is wisdom. To send drujas into De'yus' kingdom, is greater wisdom. To establish Agho'aden as the all highest heavenly kingdom, with myself at the Godhead, and ye twain to be my sole Gods of the earth, is the greatest wisdom.
12. Baal said: As I swear, thou hast spoken at last what I have for five hundred years hoped to hear thee say. To thee am I sworn forever. Put thou upon me whatsoever thou wilt.
13. Ashtaroth said: Now am I blessed above all Goddesses! What I have heard thee speak, is what I would have spoken.
14. Osiris said: It is enough then, this I proclaim, and on our crossed hands we swear: Agho'aden, All Highest Heaven! Osiris, Son of the All Central Lights! The Most High God! His only Son, Baal, Ruler of the Corporeal Earth! His only Daughter, Ashtaroth, Ruler of the Corporeal Earth! Fidelity and Union forever!
15. Thus they swore themselves into the Godhead. And on the next day Osiris sent messengers to De'yus, in his heavenly place, informing him of what had been done, and adding thereto: But thou, De'yus, I cut thee off from these earth regions. Get thy supplies whither thou canst. Adversity doth a proud soul some good.
2. But suffer mortals to worship as they may, and if they worship the Creator, say unto them: It is well. If they worship Ahura, say: It is well. If De'yus: Yea, it is well; for all of these are but one person, who is Osiris, whose high heavenly place is Agho'Aden. Thus teach them.
3. This also shall ye do: Re-establish places of learning, teaching the Osirian law; cause to be rebuilt, houses of philosophy, oracles and temples; and in all such places where mortals come to consult the spirits, provide ye such spirits who shall answer through the oracles for benefit of our dominions.
4. It was ourselves that gave the name Lord God to the Arabin'yans; it was ourselves that gave the name De'yus to Parsi'e and Heleste. Let us not waste ourselves away undoing what hath been done, but appropriate it to ourselves.
5. Such, then, was the basis on which these three Gods set out to establish heaven and earth. Osiris gave to Baal and Ashtaroth, in addition to their own kingdoms, twelve Lords each, to labor with them in the earth department; and every Lord was allotted one million servant soldiers, to be under the Lord's jurisdiction.
6. With this, Baal and Ashtaroth returned to their heavenly kingdoms on the earth, and at once set about their labors. First, by inspiring mortal kings and queens to build the required oracles. And the kings and queens thus inspired impressed tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of their subjects to do the building.
7. And in seven years' time there were built in Parsi'e and Arabin'ya four thousand altars for the sacred dances; seven thousand temples of sacrifice, four hundred and seventy oracle temples, and thirty-one sar'gis temples, where the Lords took on corporeal forms and reasoned with mortals; especially on the stars and moon and on the earth; teaching the philosophers the four motions of the earth: axial, oscillaic, orbitic and vorkum; the plan of the hissagow, and the cycles of the earth; the cycles of the sun; and the cycles of the sun's sun; the north star-belt therein, and the vortices that move them all.
8. And the inhabitants of Arabin'ya and Parsi'e and Heleste began again to prosper, and became mighty. But after many years, behold, Baal and Ashtaroth rebelled against Osiris, and seceded from Arabin'ya. And this was the end of the heavenly confederacy founded by De'yus. As for the far-off Gods in other divisions of the earth, they seceded at the time Osiris and Te-in and Sudga did. And from this time on, no more spirits were sent to the Lord God, the false, the author of the name De'yus.
9. When Baal and Ashtaroth seceded from Osiris and resumed their own kingdoms, behold, in all the divisions of the earth, every God was for himself and his own kingdom. But between Osiris and Baal and Ashtaroth a triangular war ensued in reference to the boundaries and divisions of the lands of the earth.
10. Now, therefore, since the self-Gods had become the beginning of a new order of dominion in heaven and earth, every one in his own way, it is profitable to leave them for the present, to be resumed afterward. Hear ye, then, of De'yus, the false Lord God; and of God, the true Son of Jehovih:
2. While De'yus thus soliloquized, messengers came from Che-su-gow, Te-in's heavenly place, bringing this word: Greeting to thee: our Lord God: Te-in hath seceded, and taken both his heavenly and his corporeal dominions unto himself. With an army of two hundred million angel warriors he is walling his heavenly kingdom around on every side; none can pass or repass without his permission.
3. Before De'yus recovered from his surprise, behold, other messengers came from Sudga's heavenly place, saying: Greeting to thee, our Lord God: Sudga hath seceded, taking with him his heavenly kingdom and his earth dominions, Vind'yu! With an army of two hundred million angel warriors he is walling his heavenly kingdom around on every side; none can pass or repass without his permission!
4. De'yus said: So alike and like! Then these rascal Gods had this planned beforehand! Presently other messengers arrived, saying: Greeting to thee, our one-time Lord God of heaven and earth! Osiris and Baal and Ashtaroth have seceded, taking their heavenly kingdoms and their mortal dominions with them. I, Osiris, have spoken. Thy higher grades I will draw unto myself; my lower grades I will banish unto thee!
5. De'yus said: Well, it is well. I will now make stronger the other heavenly divisions unto me; and the earth divisions, too long neglected by me; Uropa, Guatama, North and South, and their heavenly places.
6. But whilst he thus soliloquized, behold, messengers arrived from these places, also announcing their secession in like manner. Then De'yus was silent for a long while, considering. But satan came to him, saying:
7. Darkness cometh unto all the great, for by this the light is made to shine brighter. Now, since all access to the corporeal earth is cut off, and since all thy supplies for food and raiment must come up from the earth, it followeth that thou shalt lower Hored, thy heavenly place, nearer to the face of the earth. The which accomplished, thou shalt send ten thousand millions of thy warrior angels against these rebellious Gods and despoil them of their dominions, and cast them into hell, and repossess thou the whole earth.
8. De'yus said: It is true! My way is clear. These rascally Gods know not how foolishly they have exposed themselves. Hored is wide enough to cover them up. And by fire will I chase the drujas upon them, ten thousand million strong; flood them with such foulness that their kingdoms will go to pieces under them and suffocate them in the horrid stench.
9. De'yus then called together his vice-Gods, and his Holy Council, and his highest-raised officers; and he related to them what had occurred, and his plans ahead. But that he might the better deliberate and gain their acquiescence, he granted a day of recreation to meet on the following day at the trumpet call.
10. But lo and behold, on the day of recreation, no less than seven hundred millions of his highest grades left him and Hored, and descended to the heavenly kingdoms of his former Gods, some to one and some to another, whilst a few of them descended to the earth to found small kingdoms of their own. Danger was already staring Anuhasaj in the face.
11. Accordingly, he at once chose his officers, and set them to work, but owing to their lack of knowledge in such matters, only small sections were bound and lowered at one time, at which rate a hundred years would be required to accomplish the work. Hereat, De'yus' heart began to fail him. The prophecies of the higher Gods, that he and his kingdoms would be ultimately broken up and cast into hell, began to show signs of realization fearful to contemplate.
12. Anuhasaj had no time for war, but must now use every strategem in his power to prevent dismemberment in his own kingdom. In these straits a good fortune came to him in a ji'ay'an harvest falling in all the atmospherean heavens, compressing and falling, so that his lowest grades were provided with sustenance from above, and they were pacified.
13. Jehovih had spoken to Cpenta-armij, in her far-off etherean worlds, saying: Behold, the earth, she entereth now the ji'ay'an fields of Tu'e'vraga, in My high roads, Loo-sutsk. A little while will I feed the self-Gods of the lower heavens, and lead them on to know My power.
2. So God, in Craoshivi, advised his High Council, and also sent messengers in haste of Vara-pishanaha, to Ahura, and acquainted him. After this God propounded in Council: Anuhasaj, what can Craoshivi do for him? Thereupon the members spake at great length, more than a thousand of them.
3. So God decreed: A commission to wait on Anuhasaj and inform him of his danger, and offer to succor and save him. This that followeth is the message thus sent, to wit:
4. To thee, O Anuhasaj, greeting in Jehovih's name, and by our love assured. Thou art adjudged to be in perilous condition. Behold, one hundred and thirty years' pressure will fall on the heavens of the earth; Craoshivi will go down to the depths of hada. Reach up thy hands, and I will come and save thee and thy kingdom. Wilt thou withdraw thine armies and permit the resurrection of thy lowest grades?
5. Anuhasaj answered this in these words: Who art thou that thus assaileth my peaceful kingdom? Thou pretended son of the Void Nothingness? Call thou on me as becometh one with thy small kingdom, and if thou need help for thyself, or for thy paupers, I will give unto thee!
6. Thereupon God returned this answer, to wit: Be thou patient with me, O brother: If it be that I am proved to be in darkness, and thou in the light, I will make thee ample amends. If on the other hand I be in the light and thou in darkness, I will say naught that would wound thee. If thou wilt apply thyself diligently to solve the place of the earth and her heavens thou wilt find in truth the coming pressure whereof I told thee. Think not that my words are spoken at random, but try them by prophecy and by mathematics.
7. As to the coming danger, it is an easy matter to estimate. A thousand years ago, when thou first established thyself and thy heaven, Hored possessed an average grade above fifty, all told. And there were four thousand millions of them.
8. In two hundred years thou hadst six thousand millions, and the grade was raised to sixty-five. In the next two hundred years the number was nearly doubled, but the grade had fallen to forty. And in two hundred years later the inhabitants had nearly doubled again, but the grade had fallen to twenty-eight. In the next two hundred years, the increase in numbers was at the same rate as the decrease in the grade.
9. Now behold, thy twenty-eight thousand millions, more than half of whom are in Hored, are below grade ten. And when thou didst first possess Hored, a ten grade could not survive thereon. Think not that some accidental thing will raise so great a weight.
10. Look into this matter, as to what thou hast done! Thou hast persuaded thy hosts not to look up to Jehovih and His kingdoms, and lo, they incline downward to the earth. Yea, they have already filled the earth with war and destruction.
11. Thou shalt not hope to throw these things on thy Gods, for they will turn against thee and accuse thee. At present they are content to found kingdoms of their own. But they will also come to an end. Because they have seceded from thee, let it be evidence that all the highest grades will follow in the same way.
12. As for Craoshivi, her lowest grades are above fifty, and therefore self-sustaining; her highest grades are ninety-nine and her average eighty-eight. And hundreds of millions of these are such as my Lords have rescued from thy bondage; others, such Faithists on the earth as thy false Gods put to death for refusing to bow to thee. And have they not proved it is better to suffer death than to renounce faith in Jehovih? Otherwise they had now been within the company of thy slaves, toiling in darkness.
13. Yea, my kingdom is made up of those that were despised and abused; and of those that thy Gods slew in war, chaotic and mad. For my asaphs followed thy cruel wars and gathered in the spirits of the slain, whom thou wouldst not have. Thou callest them poor still. Why, so they are; they are washed white as snow; and because they have been taught to keep on casting aside all accumulation, save knowledge and goodness of heart, in which they are rich indeed.
14. They would come to thee now in pity to take thy people by the hand and deliver them away from thee and darkness. And if thy slaves be not delivered away from thee, they will surely, soon or late, turn upon thee and cast thee into hell. I pray thee, therefore, assume thou conversion to Jehovih, and cast thy kingdom upon Him whilst thou mayst. For I have the power and the means to deliver thee and thy slaves. Yea, I will give thee a new name, and hide thee away, that they cannot find thee. And thou shalt be one with my in my holy place.
15. To this Anuhasaj made no reply, and so the matter remained.
2. But Ahura suffered not his dominions to be depleted, but did after the manner of God in Craoshivi, and sent down to hada and to the earth and gathered in, both the fallen angels of De'yus and his false Gods, and also the chaotic and foul-smelling spirits, wild and frenzied, and avengeful; and Ahura had them brought to Vara-pishanaha and there treated, and nursed and restored and put to school and to factories, and taught and developed; hundreds of millions of them becoming bright, wise and of great love and power.
3. God sent to Ahura, saying: Greeting to thee in the name of Jehovih. Because of the coming darkness which will soon press upon atmospherea from every quarter, and the trials that will be put upon Gods and angels, let us unite our heavenly kingdoms! Let us bring our plateaux together, and thy kingdom shall be my kingdom, and mine shall be thine; and one of us shall be manager in heaven, and the other shall descend to hada and to the earth, when the great darkness is on.
4. To this Ahura replied: Greeting to thee, God of the heavens of the earth, and with love and most high reverence. There is wisdom in thy design. I will do with thee whatsoever thou demandest, to fulfill this great work.
5. So God, of Craoshivi, and Ahura, brought their forces to bear on their respective plateaux, to unite them. And this was the proceeding, for their places were two thousand miles apart, to the east and south-west; and the one, Vara-pishanaha, seven thousand miles below Craoshivi:
6. For the coming pressure would drive them both down near the earth's surface; to steer Vara-pishanaha to the eastward, would bring one over the other; and to lower the grade of Craoshivi would bring the twain in contact. And the inhabitants of both dominions were so high in power and wisdom that their presence was higher than the place they inhabited. So that the element of the plateaux was all that was required to be moved.
7. To find the power required, and to arrange the ranks for the proceeding, God appointed officers and set them to work, and the officers reported back that the work could be completed in twelve years. And Ahura united with God; and there were engaged in this labor three thousand million angels. And they made a bridge betwixt the two plateaux, and it so connected them that millions of angels could pass and repass objectively whilst the work was going on.
8. Yet God's labors and Ahura's labors in receiving the spirits of the earth, of the Faithists, and of others from the regions of hada, ceased not, lagged not. Their thousands of otevans sailed the heavens along in every way, gathering in the unfortunate.
9. And now that the self-Gods in hada had quarreled amongst themselves and separated, De'yus' blockade was broken of its own accord. His mighty standing army against Jehovih's believers had melted away; and the otevans sped hither and yonder unmolestedly. And they gathered in many a thousand; yea, tens of thousands, of De'yus' highest raised angels. The lowest would not come; they had been taught to hate with vengeance Jehovih and His worshippers; to look upon all ills as from Jehovih; to look upon all good delights and blessings as the gifts of De'yus, the Lord their God.
10. Suffice it to say, in twelve years' time the great heavens, Craoshivi and Vara-pishanaha, were united and become as one place. And there was a time of rejoicing and delight; great recreation and communion; great rites and ceremonies, and worshipping and rejoicing before Jehovih.
11. Already was the pressure of ji'ay upon the heavens and the earth. Hored was fast falling toward the earth; De'yus' highest raised had already gone; his kingdom was becoming a kingdom of fools and idlers, a most dangerous class when once want and starvation come upon them.
12. De'yus, still stubborn, and, withal, hoping for a change from some cause he saw not, had now no longer time to quarrel with his truant Gods, but from day to day, hour to hour, was kept at the full strain to avert the threatened doom.
13. Meanwhile, the false Gods, his own one-time pupils, were now heaping into his distracted kingdom millions and millions of drujas, who had been taught on the earth that all that was required of them was to call on the Savior, Anubi, and the Lord God, and that when they died they would go straight to glory to dwell on the holy hill of the Lord God. And these poor creatures the self-Gods now applauded, helping them on, saying: Yea, go on; your Savior, Anubi, will open the gate and pass you in. Henceforth, forever, ye shall do nothing but bow to De'yus.
14. And these spirits of darkness, like idiots, were bowing all the time, day and night, doing nothing but bowing, and saying: Blessed Anubi! He can save me! Glory to the Lord our God! Then they would begin again: Blessed Anubi! My Savior! Glory be to De'yus! For this was all they knew; neither would they hear nor see else; they were as wild people; with outbursting eyes, looking for Anubi; looking for De'yus; but bowing incessantly in all directions; millions of them, tens of millions; delirious angels!
15. Anubi gave up his place in consequence, and in fear of them; and his heavenly city was like a house without a keeper, where throngs go in and out, around about, forever shouting: O my blessed Savior, Anubi! Glory be to the Lord God.
16. But Anubi was with the false Lord God, striving to help him find some means of escape or safety.
2. For before this, all nations knew the office of Gods and Lords, and reverenced them as Jehovih's high officers, raised up spirits of the dead, wise and powerful. But now, in five great divisions of the earth, satan's hadan chief had bound his name in mortals, with threatened penalties, and even death, for mentioning Jehovih's name. And, to put them to the test, made oaths on burning flesh, that whoso would not eat thereof should die.
3. For this was the criterion before the courts that they that refused fish and flesh food, or would not pollute the body by noxious drinks and smoke, intoxicating to the sense, were possessed of Jehovihian worship, and so deserved torture and death.
4. So the names of Lord and God, and Lord God, and De'yus, had now become for a thousand years fixed in mortals' minds as the Creator, a large man sitting on a throne in Hored, his heavenly seat, watched and guarded by his son, Anubi, keeper of the scales, and of the gate to heaven. To make a plausible story of which, the angels, through oracles, and magicians, and priests, and prophets, proclaimed that: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and all things therein and thereon. And he was tired, and rested; and, as if creation was a completed work, left certain laws to run the wonderful machine whilst he sat afar off, looking on; smiling at the pranks of mortals, and their failure to understand him, with a devil and a horrid fire to torture their souls, if they sang not in praise of this compounded, false Lord God.
5. Thus turned he, their false God, the voice of mortals from Him Who is Ever Present, Whose speech hath every soul heard, Whose Presence moveth all things in heaven and earth! The false God turned them to sing and pray to himself, so he should clutch and bind their souls in endless slavery; untaught, half fed; as drudges, to bring into his capital, provender and building stones to glorify him forever.
6. Over Jaffeth, far and wide, this traitor to Jehovih had sealed in stone, and papyrus, and wood, and sacred cloth, his name, Ho-Joss, to suit the Panic voice, as whilst in Vind'yu he made them engrave it Dyaus, to fit the Vedic tongue; and thence in Fonece to suit the higher-spirited race, Adonia-Egad, and go over to Heleste, and, in less distince and bastard Greece, whisper Zeus, saying: These words are watch-words to gain Anubi's ear, and turn the scales for endless paradise. Go ye, slaves, engrave my names; and, in mortal libraries, register my great exploit, of how I created the world!
7. And make me spotless pure, letting sin into the races of men by Osiris' cunning tale of Eve's weakness by fault of the earth. For I am not come like Jehovih's captains, spirits sent to rule men for a season, but a very God of blood and bones, who once, in terrible anger, flooded the earth to drown my disobedient sons and daughters. Make ye them to tremble and draw long breath when my name is spoken, or, by mine own soul, I will hurl heaven and earth into endless chaos!
8. Pressing downward ji'ay came, slowly and surely, the very motion spake as a million tongues, serious, awful. For many, on every side, of the hosts of Anuhasaj were deserting him. As one in a small way may see on a sinking ship, how the expert swimmers, with strong arms, leap into the water boldly and swim for the far-off shore, whilst the helpless, in frantic rage, cluster fast upon the distracted officers, blockading them from doing good. So began the tumult in the fast descending plateau, Hored, which was increased a hundred-fold by the flood of drujas cast upon De'yus' kingdom by his own traitorous false Gods.
9. De'yus' generals and captains first tried music to hold the forty thousand millions to peace and order; but the es'enaurs themselves took fright, and by the million fled, flying down to the earth to Osiris', or Te-in's, or Sudga's kingdoms, and over-flooding mortals with ghostly revelries. Next, by parades, and rites, and great processions, did De'yus' officers seek to divert the panic-stricken millions.
10. Thus for years this maddened God with wonderful strength of will almost held his own, inventing tens of thousands of strategems. But at last, in the downward course, Hored touched upon the corporeal earth; and suddenly, as if startled by the shock, the frantic millions screamed, and then, alas, all order died.
11. The doors of hell were opened! Anuhasaj's throne and capital, with all their splendor, the maddened mob broke loose to pillage or to destroy. And then rushed in the fault-finders, shouting: Thou lying God, but like a man, who art thou? And thou, Anubi! Deceiving judge! A thousand horrid deaths to thee!
12. But the unlearned drujas knew not who was rank or officer, God or judge, but seized the pale and trembling De'yus and Anubi, and more than a million officers, overpowered them, by ten millions to one, pressed on by the foul-smelling crowd. And now, with blows and kicks and cuffs, on every side began the awful fray. Till stretched as wide as the earth, the countless millions were plunged into hell. Hereupon, to right and left, was now an unceasing combat, and all the hosts of the Lord God were sworn for vengeance against any one they came against.
13. Then came the torturers, casting into the hells most offensive smells and suffocating gases, crammed in the nose and mouth of their victims. No more were the Lord God and Anubi seen, but swallowed up in measureless darkness, where every soul sought nothing good, but labored hard to give unto others excruciating tortures for vengeance sake.