CHAPTER 95.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Levi
The Sermon on the Mount, continued. Jesus pronounces the eight beatitudes and the eight woes. Speaks words of encouragement. Emphasizes the exalted character of the apostolic work.
And Jesus and the twelve went to the mountain top, and Jesus said,
2 Twelve pillars of the church, apostles of the Christ; light-bearers of the sun of life and ministers of God to men:
3 In just a little while you must go forth alone, and preach the gospel of the king, first to the Jews and then to all the world.
4 And you shall go, not with a scourge of cords to drive; you cannot drive men to the king;
5 But you shall go in love and helpfulness and lead the way to right and light.
6 Go forth and say, The kingdom is at hand.
7 Worthy are the strong in spirit; theirs the kingdom is.
8 Worthy are the meek; they shall possess the land.
9 Worthy they who hunger and who thirst for right; they shall be satisfied.
10 Worthy are the merciful; and mercy shall be shown to them.
11 Worthy they who gain the mastery of self; they have the key of power.
12 Worthy are the pure in heart; and they shall see the king.
13 Worthy they who are maligned and wronged because they do the right; their persecutors they shall bless.
14 Worthy is the trustful child of faith; he shall sit in the throne of power.
15 Be not discouraged when the world shall persecute and call you curst; but rather be exceeding glad.
16 The prophets and the seers, and all the good of earth, have been maligned.
17 If you are worthy of the crown of life you will be slandered, vilified and curst on earth.
18 Rejoice when evil men shall drive you from their ways and cause your name to be a hiss and byword in the street.
19 I say, rejoice; but deal in mercy with the doers of the wrong; they are but children at their play; they know not what they do.
20 Rejoice not over fallen foes. As you help men rise from the depth of sin, so God will help you on to greater heights.
21 Woe to the rich is gold and lands; they have temptations multiform.
22 Woe unto men who walk at will in pleasure’s paths; their ways are full of snares and dangerous pits.
23 Woe to the proud; they stand upon a precipice; destruction waits for them.
24 Woe to the man of greed; for what he has is not his own; and, lo, another comes; his wealth is gone.
25 Woe to the hypocrite; his form is fair to look upon; his heart is filled with carcasses and dead men’s bones.
26 Woe to the cruel and relentless man; he is himself the victim of his deeds.
27 The evil he would do to other men rebounds; the scourger is the scourged.
28 Woe to the libertine who preys upon the virtues of the weak. The hour comes when he will be the weak, the victim of a libertine of greater power.
29 Woe unto you when all the world shall speak in praise of you. The world speaks not in praise of men who live within the Holy Breath; it speaks in praise of prophets false, and of illusions base.
30 You men who walk in Holy Breath are salt, the salt of earth; but if you lose your virtue you are salt in name alone, worth nothing more than dust.
31 And you are light; are called to light the world.
32 A city on a hill cannot be hid; its lights are seen afar; and while you stand upon the hills of life men see your light and imitate your works and honor God.
33 Men do not light a lamp and hide it in a cask; they put it on a stand that it may light the house.
34 You are the lamps of God; must not stand in the shade of earth illusions, but in the open, high upon the stand.
35 I am not come to nullify the law, nor to destroy; but to fulfill.
36 The Law, the Prophets and the Psalms were written in the wisdom of the Holy Breath and cannot fail.
37 The heavens and earth that are will change and pass away; the word of God is sure; it cannot pass until it shall accomplish that whereunto it hath been sent.
38 Whoever disregards the law of God and teaches men to do the same, becomes a debtor unto God and cannot see his face until he has returned and paid his debt by sacrifice of life.
39 But he who hearkens unto God and keeps his law and does his will on earth, shall rule with Christ.