NEUOFFENBARUNGDeutscher Text · Book contents
28 December 1843, evening
[Ste.01_005,01] So that in the end you may not say that only a passage I set before you Myself is a full central sun, choose a passage yourselves, whichever you please. We shall then see whether it does not, as an equal central sun, illuminate the very same fundamental truth most brightly before the eyes of the spirit. Do so, then!
[Ste.01_005,02] You have taken the two short passages, ‘I thirst!’ and ‘It is finished!’
[Ste.01_005,03] But before we come to the clear illumination of them, I must assure you that I left the choice entirely free to you. Otherwise you might say in the end that I put into your minds precisely what I could use. Now we come to the main matter!
[Ste.01_005,04] ‘I thirst!’ For what? For the love the world does not have. That is why it offered Me only vinegar and gall to quench My thirst in place of the life-giving water, and still goes on offering it to Me to this day.
[Ste.01_005,05] ‘I thirst!’ For what? For the life that I Myself have been in the beginning, from eternity, and that from the very beginning I have lavished in such rich abundance upon eternally countless beings!
[Ste.01_005,06] For this life, then, I thirst! In endlessly many ways this life has passed into death. I came to wrest it from death. That is why, in the hour of the great redemption, I thirsted so greatly for this life that had been lavished abroad. But death had gained such ascendancy that the eternally living blood of love could not awaken it!
[Ste.01_005,07] When I asked to drink life, they gave Me death to drink in place of life! Vinegar and gall were the drink: vinegar as the symbol of what draws together and hardens, and gall as the symbol of hatred, anger and fury.
[Ste.01_005,08] This image is plainly and clearly set forth. Let us see how it applies to our subject as we go on.
[Ste.01_005,09] See, this is how I call continually to the whole world as to you, ‘I thirst!’ In other words, ‘Love Me. Give Me your love to drink! Love God above all and your neighbour as yourself. That is the water of life for which I thirst in you.’
[Ste.01_005,10] The question is, do you offer Me this water? Or do you too offer Me vinegar and gall?
[Ste.01_005,11] The little I ask of you is simply love and deeds that follow from it. But if, in place of the true, living deed of love, you merely read and do nothing except what pleases your worldly mind one way or another, is it not vinegar mixed with gall that you offer Me in place of living water? Yes, I tell you, the more you read and gather, while doing nothing except what delights you in worldly fashion, the sourer the vinegar and the more bitter the gall become.
[Ste.01_005,12] Then, of course, it is said, ‘It is finished!’ But what? My own struggle for you. As your Creator, God and Lord, and eternal life itself, I can do no more than take your death upon Myself!
[Ste.01_005,13] That I cannot be killed in My eternal spirit needs no further explanation. I can carry only the struggle for your life to the highest degree without limit. But because you yourselves are finite, this struggle too must have some highest possible goal. Once this goal is reached, the struggle is finished from My side. That does not make it finished in you, who, out of sheer gratitude, offer Me, the one who has fought to the finish for your life, only vinegar mixed with gall instead of the living water of love.
[Ste.01_005,14] It is indeed finished, but unfortunately only for Myself, and not for you. That is, I have done for you everything within divine possibility, and so I have finished My work for you. But do you act accordingly, so that this work may be finished within you too?
[Ste.01_005,15] Oh yes, you read diligently, write diligently, and are glad to speak of Me among yourselves. But when I say, ‘In place of certain worldly thoughts and some of your worldly amusements, devote one full hour a day to Me. Set it apart so that in it you may occupy yourselves in your hearts with Me alone,’ oh, you will find a hundred objections in place of one, and a hundred worldly thoughts will whirl about a single feeble spiritual thought like a whirlwind!
[Ste.01_005,16] You will bring out all sorts of worldly considerations. Even if someone does resolve to spend such an hour, he will certainly not look forward to it very much. He will be a little uneasy about it, diligently count the minutes on the face of his clock and often wait impatiently for the end of the little hour dedicated to Me.
[Ste.01_005,17] And if some trifling worldly business intervenes, the little hour will either be cancelled altogether or moved to a part of the day when kindly sleep usually descends upon mortals and when, especially for women, there are no more pleasant visits to look forward to and no more walks to take for the good of the nerves.
[Ste.01_005,18] See, all that is vinegar and gall! Nothing is thereby finished in you, even if in My infinite love I do everything conceivable to bring you onto the right path of life. For it to be finished within you, each must deny himself out of true love for Me, take up his cross and follow Me faithfully.
[Ste.01_005,19] But who does this? Women, when things go well, may spend the whole day stitching and tacking for the body, dress themselves up and often look forward beyond measure to a visit. But if I were to say, ‘Stay at home in your little room and remember Me in your hearts,’ they would grow sad, pull exceedingly long faces and say, ‘But we have nothing good in the world!’
[Ste.01_005,20] Is this not vinegar and gall in full measure? Do such women not hold the most trivial worldly amusement higher than Me in their hearts? Have they brought it to completion within themselves as I finished the great struggle for them on the cross?
[Ste.01_005,21] Give them pleasant little books with all sorts of little stories purporting, for My sake, to have some connection with Me. They will read them gladly, especially if now and then there is talk of a romantic marriage or there are wondrous fairy tales in them. But give them a little book written somewhat more earnestly. They will read it with just the appetite with which a dog accustomed to good food eats a dry crumb of bread. He will sniff it at most and soon leave it with his tail down and ears drooping.
[Ste.01_005,22] Since doing is a more earnest matter than merely reading even the most earnest book, the difficulty with which doing will have to contend is plain.
[Ste.01_005,23] Many people enjoy hearing good music played by artists. How few of them are willing to deny themselves enough to become artists through arduous study!
[Ste.01_005,24] Listening is easy, reading is not hard, and looking on is just as easy. But doing it oneself does not appeal greatly to most people. What good does it do anyone to know and fail to act accordingly?
[Ste.01_005,25] See, all this is vinegar mixed with gall, and it does not bring the work to completion! In Me it is finished indeed, since I give everyone all that can be given for it. But it is not finished in the person who will not use what I give him in the way and for the purpose for which I give it.
[Ste.01_005,26] So be doers of the Word, not idle hearers. Only as doers do you quench My thirst with the living water of love. Otherwise you always offer Me vinegar and gall.
[Ste.01_005,27] I think this too will be clear. Yet more central suns will follow!