CHAPTER 101.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Levi
The Sermon on the Mount, concluded. The concluding part of the code of ethics. The Christines return to Capernaum.
The fruitage of the tree of life is all too fine to feed the carnal mind.
2 If you would throw a diamond to a hungry dog, lo, he would turn away, or else attack you in a rage.
3 The incense that is sweet to God is quite offensive unto Beelzebul; the bread of heaven is but chaff to men who cannot comprehend the spirit life.
4 The master must be wise and feed the soul with what it can digest.
5 If you have not the food for every man, just ask and you shall have; seek earnestly and you shall find.
6 Just speak the Word and knock; the door will fly ajar.
7 No one has ever asked in faith and did not have; none ever sought in vain; no one who ever knocked aright has failed to find an open door.
8 When men shall ask you for the bread of heaven, turn not away, nor give to them the fruit of carnal trees.
9 If one, a son, would ask you for a loaf, would you give him a stone? If he would ask you for a fish, would you give him a serpent of the dust?
10 What you would have your God give unto you, give unto men. The measure of your worth lies in your service unto men.
11 There is a way that leads unto the perfect life; few find it at a time.
12 It is a narrow way; it lies among the rocks and pitfalls of the carnal life; but in the way there are no pitfalls and no rocks.
13 There is a way that leads to wretchedness and want. It is a spacious way and many walk therein. It lies among the pleasure groves of carnal life.
14 Beware, for many claim to walk the way of life who walk the way of death.
15 But they are false in word and deed; false prophets they. They clothe themselves in skins of sheep, while they are vicious wolves.
16 They cannot long conceal themselves; men know them by their fruits;
17 You cannot gather grapes from thorns, nor from the thistles, figs.
18 The fruit is daughter of the tree and, like the parent, so the child; and every tree that bears not wholesome fruit is plucked up by the roots and cast away,
19 Because a man prays long and loud is not a sign that he is saint. The praying men are not all in the kingdom of the soul.
20 The man who lives the holy life, who does the will of God, abides within the kingdom of the soul.
21 The good man from the treasures of his heart sends blessedness and peace to all the world.
22 The evil man sends thoughts that blight and wither hope and joy and fill the world with wretchedness and woe.
23 Men think and act and speak out of the abundance of the heart.
24 And when the judgment hour shall come a host of men will enter pleadings for themselves and think to buy the favor of the judge with words.
25 And they will say, Lo, we have wrought a multitude of works in the Omnific name,
26 Have we not prophesied? Have we not cured all manner of disease? Have we not cast the evil spirits out of those obsessed?
27 And then the judge will say, I know you not. You rendered service unto God in words when in your heart you worshipped Beelzebul.
28 The evil one may use the powers of life, and do a multitude of mighty works. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
29 The man who hears the words of life and does them not is like the man who builds his house upon the sand, which when the floods come on, is washed away and all is lost.
30 But he who hears the words of life and in an honest, sincere heart receives and treasures them and lives the holy life,
31 Is like the man who builds his house upon the rock; the floods may come, the winds may blow, the storms may beat upon his house; it is not moved.
32 Go forth and build your life upon the solid rock of truth, and all the powers of the evil one will shake it not.
33 And Jesus finished all his sayings on the mount and then he, with the twelve, returned unto Capernaum.