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THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD VOLUME 1
The early history of mankind
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But do not let this deceive foul How often the tour Gospels have been distrusted! But are they because of it of less value in the hearts of the true believers in God? How often have I, the Lord and Giver of life and every gift of true benefit to the latter, been declared by the worldly-wise as just a man, as a mesmerist, also as a fraud and even as a purely fictitious person; and at present millions regard Me as such! Yet other millions are not led astray by it. They, as doers of My Word and not just hearers of it, understood in the simplicity of their hearts that Jesus of Nazareth was more than what the many worldly scholars take Him for. Therefore, where this work is concerned, let no one be influenced by the judgment of the world, which accepts only what is of its own kind, but let him listen only to the voice of the heart of the unsophisticated. They will express a correct opinion to everyone before the eyes of the good Giver. But the intellect of the worldly- wise will on many occasions find this a stumbling block. Good for the one who is not completely shipwrecked in the process!
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What do such readers regard as simplicity? I think that writings which, despite the necessary, for the limited human understanding so mysterious abundance and depth of what they otter, are presented in a way that even children can properly understand them, once they are able to read reasonably well and are capable of thinking beyond the first rudiments of writing and arithmetic, could really not be lacking in a certain simplicity. Pictures and language do not ever imply the simplicity of a writing, but only the easy comprehension of an ever so simple heart that can find its way in such a writing, Everything else like an antiquated, awkward language and several thousands of years old corresponding allegories - is as far from simplicity as is the intellect of the worldly-wise. And as for the remarks about the needed tranquility and range of vision and the required depth in the whole of the ideology, there is all the more of all that contained in this work, the more the criticizing worldly wisdom imagines it to be lacking; for that which gives tranquility to the heart must itself have tranquility in abundance. Of course, it cannot give tranquility to the intellect, which is not receptive to this and, therefore, cannot find tranquility in a writing, as a stream cannot find it until it has reached the greatest depth of the sea. However, if the intellect of the worldly-wise could humble itself and descend from its presumed height into the simple little chamber of the heart, it would then out of this tranquility find the tranquility believed missing in this work and the fullest range of vision within it. But as long as the intellect is like a weather-cock on the spire of earthly wisdom, continuously turned in all directions by various winds of doubt, it will probably not find anywhere the tranquility it does not possess itself, nor the usual range of vision it enjoys on its windy height
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