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Chapter XXI

1. JEHOVIH had said: All angels below the first resurrection, save infants, shall be known in heaven and on earth as drujas, for they are such as have not capacity in knowledge or strength of individuality.

2. As there are on earth paupers and vagrants and beggars and criminals who are druks, so are there, in hada, spirits that are a great trial to both mortals and angels.

3. And they inhabit mortals and the houses that mortals dwell in. Some mortals have one or two of them; some a score; and some have hundreds of them. Some of them continue to inhabit mortal dwellings long after mortals have abandoned them, even till p. 510a they fall in ruins. And whoso cometh into such house, the drujas come upon him to live on him and with him.

4. And if a mortal have greater wisdom and strength of soul than the drujas, he ruleth over them, to a good purpose, reforming them and raising them up out of darkness and helplessness.

5. But if the drujas have greater power than the mortal, then they pull him down in darkness, making of him a man to lust after the affairs of earth. Sometimes they help man to riches and great power; and if he have sons and daughters who are brought up in idleness and ease and luxury, then the drujas fasten upon them, leading them in their own way, of lust and debauchery, or hard-heartedness.

6. The flesh-eater is their delight; and the drunkard their great joy. The man of riches, and kings, and generals, and fighting men, and harlots, and soldiers, are great treasures to them. And all manner of intoxicating things, that mortals delight in, are great feasts and rejoicings to them. The priest and the preacher who live in ease and luxury, performing showy rites and entertainments, are as great harvests for them to revel with.

7. On some occasion the drujas rule over their mortal, and his neighbors call him mad, and they send him to a mad-house, which is to them a city of delight. When mortals engage in war, slaying one another, the drujas have great merriment, taking part, by inspiring the mortals into the conflict.

8. The pleader (lawyer) is a favorite to them, for his vocation bringeth them in the midst of contention and craft and lying; he is to them a fortunate habitation.

9. The magician that worketh miracles and tricks is their favorite, for with him and through him, they can make themselves manifest. And when they show themselves, and are questioned as to who they are, they answer to any name that will please or flatter, even at times pretending to be Gods and Saviors!

10. The tattling woman that talketh of her neighbors is a good home for drujas; and if the woman be given to talk evil, they are rejoiced beyond measure. The man that is a great boaster, and liar, and slanderer, is a choice house for them to dwell in.

11. The cheater and defrauder, the miser and the spendthrift, the curser of Jehovih, the curser of the Gods, is like a citadel for them to inhabit.

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12. They go not, for the most part, away from the mortal they inhabit whilst he liveth; nay, they have not wisdom or strength to go more than one length away. Some of them have strength to go to a neighbor or to a neighbor's house. And if a mortal curse his neighbor to die, then such drujas as can go to that neighbor, seek out some poisonous infection and inoculate him to death, which is called casting spells.

13. Nay, there is nothing too low or foul for them; and for the most part they are but idiots, and deranged imbeciles, answering to any name or request like a man who is drunk, one so very drunk that he knoweth not and careth not.

14. A large city full of crime and debauchery, and rich and fashionable people, and people of evil habits, suiteth them better than a country place.

15. Drujas dwell as numerously among the rich and fashionable as amongst the poor; they fill the bawdy-house and the temples of the idolators; a court of justice full of pleaders (lawyers) and criminals is their delightful resort, but a battle in war is a sweet amusement to them.

16. A laboring man that is good and honest is of little value to them, save he be a gross feeder or drinker of intoxicating wines.

17. A man that marrieth a rich, lazy woman, receiveth with his wife a hundred drujas, or more.

18. A woman that marrieth a rich, lazy man, or a gambler, receiveth with her husband a hundred drujas, or more.

19. Drujas rule over mortals more than mortals rule over them. It was because of their abundance and their power to do evil, that Jehovih commanded His chosen to marry amongst themselves; and to withdraw from other peoples, and make themselves a separate and exclusive people, that they might not be inhabited with drujas.

20. When a mortal dieth, and he had dominion over his drujas, not only his spirit will rise to the first resurrection, but his drujas also, whereupon they are all delivered into light.

21. When a mortal dieth, and his drujas had dominion over him, then his spirit becometh a druj also, and he becometh one with them, fastening on whoso cometh in the way; but if it be in a house and no mortal cometh, upon whom they can fasten, then they remain in that house. And here they may remain a year or ten years or a hundred years, in darkness, knowing p. 512a nothing, doing nothing, until other angels come and deliver them, which is often no easy matter, requiring bodily force to carry them away.

22. Jehovih gave certain signs unto both angels and mortals, whereby it shall be known both on earth and in heaven which is master over the other, a mortal or his drujas, and, consequently, such matter determineth to what place the spirit of a man will most readily fall after death.

23. If the mortal can not control his habit for intoxication, or gluttony, or avarice, or debauchery, or laziness, or lying, or hypocrisy, preaching what he practiceth not, or sexual indulgence, or vengeance, or anger, or tattling mischievously, then is he, indeed, a victim in the hands of drujas, and at the time of his death, he becometh one with them.

24. For if he have not power to rule in such matters whilst he is in the mortal world, he will be no stronger by the loss of his corporeal body.

25. If the mortal, on the other hand, shall have risen to control himself over these habits and desires, then will he be indeed, at the time of death, already entered into the first resurrection; and the drujas, if he have any, will be delivered also.

26. And not the words and professions of either mortals or drujas, nor their prayers, nor religious rites and ceremonies are of any value unto them; but by the works and behavior of mortals are all things known and proven.

27. So that Jehovih's high-raised Gods but need pass over a corporeal city once, to determine whether it be in resurrection or declension. And such Gods put their angel laborers to work, sorting them as a mortal would his cattle.

28. And if a city be badly cast in drujas, dragging mortals down to destruction spiritually; then the angels inspire such mortals as are in the way of resurrection to move out of the city, and after that they cast the city in fire and burn it down.

29. And whilst it is burning, and the drujas distracted with the show, the angels of power come upon them and carry them off, hundreds of millions of them. And the mortals are thus cleared of them that would have bound them in darkness and death.

30. In this matter the infidel curseth Jehovih because the houses are burned, for he judgeth matters by the things his soul was set upon. He saith: What a foolish God! How wicked to burn a city.

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31. For he understandeth not that all things are Jehovih's; and that His Gods under him work not for man's earthly aggrandizement, which is the curse of his spirit, but they work for his spiritual resurrection in their own way, according to the Father's light in them.

32. To accomplish the resurrection of the drujas dwelling with mortals on the earth, had Lika, Son of Jehovih, appointed At'yesonitus, with his twelve generals, very Gods in wisdom and power, each one to a certain division of the earth.


Next: Chapter XXII