NEUOFFENBARUNG3 August 1847
[JS.01_003,01] Here we are again at the deathbed of a man who was very rich. He managed his wealth honestly, brought up his children as well as he could and always provided generously for the poor. Admittedly, for what he called an hour's amusement, he would sometimes remember those poor but young sisters who were ready for all sorts of merriment in return for a ducat. At the same time he took Holy Scripture very seriously, reading it often and diligently. He firmly believed that Jesus is Jehovah Himself, for he had learnt this from Swedenborg, whose works he had read in his leisure hours, apart from a few short ones.
[JS.01_003,02] Yet all this reading made him quick to flare up when he heard anyone speak indifferently or even disparagingly about Jesus. If such an ‘Antichrist’ found himself in his company, he had better make himself scarce in time or face some very disagreeable and decidedly physical consequences. In short, our man was a champion of the strictest sort for pure Christianity.
[JS.01_003,03] At a very advanced age this man fell ill after a great banquet, where he had already indulged himself more than enough. What followed was especially to blame. With his blood overstimulated by the many strong wines, he lay twice with a young sister of very voluptuous figure.
[JS.01_003,04] When our man returned home from this expedition, he felt a little dizzy and took it for a touch of drunkenness. But he was mistaken. He had scarcely made to climb into bed when his legs gave way. He fell to the ground, unconscious to the world, and was already, as you say, as dead as a doornail.
[JS.01_003,05] It goes without saying that his family, terribly frightened, at once did everything they could to revive the head of their household. But their efforts were in vain. Once the angelic spirits have taken someone away, that person never wakes again to this world.
[JS.01_003,06] There is therefore little more to see or hear of this man on this side. Let us go at once into the world of spirits and see how our man fares there, what he sets about doing and where he turns.
[JS.01_003,07] First you must know that people struck down suddenly by a fatal stroke have no idea, nor even the slightest inkling, that they have died or how it happened. They find no change in the household they had on earth or in the way they feel, except that they are in perfect health, as they usually were in the world. Likewise, they see no angels, although these are close at hand, and hear nothing of the world of spirits, although they are fully within it. In short, in every respect they are as though they were still entirely in the world. They eat and drink, live in the place they know well, in their own house and among their whole family, with, so to speak, not one dear face missing.
[JS.01_003,08] Our man was, and is, in exactly that position. Look at him now, already in the world of spirits! In excellent spirits himself, he climbs into bed in his familiar bedroom, furnished here in every last detail as it was on earth. See how comfortably he stretches out in bed, hoping and waiting for sleep. Just one thing puzzles him: this time he cannot get to sleep at all, for sleep is unknown to spirits. They have a corresponding state, called rest there, but it bears essentially no resemblance to earthly sleep.
[JS.01_003,09] Let us listen to the man himself and see how he behaves in his new state and how it strikes him. Hear what he says in bed: ‘Lini, are you asleep?’ Lini, his wife, sits up and asks, ‘What is it, dear Leopold? Is anything the matter?’ (Note: his wife, children and other members of the household are represented incognito, as it were, by spirits appointed for the purpose.) The man says, ‘No, there is nothing wrong. Thank God, I am as sound as a bell. Only I cannot sleep, and I do not feel the slightest urge to. Go and fetch my sleeping pills. I will swallow a couple and perhaps I will be able to sleep then.’
[JS.01_003,10] Lini gets up at once and does as he wishes. The pills are now ‘swallowed’, but sleep still does not come.
[JS.01_003,11] After a while the man says, ‘Lini, fetch me a couple more. You see, I still cannot sleep. I am only growing more wide awake.’
[JS.01_003,12] Lini says, ‘Leave the pills alone. You might upset your stomach with them. Come and lie with me instead. That may get you to sleep sooner, if you insist on sleeping.’
[JS.01_003,13] Somewhat taken aback, the man says, ‘My dear Lini, I will have some difficulty with that now. You know from long experience that I never feel up to it after a big feast. Nature always fails me in the necessary respect. So please give me another couple of pills instead.’
[JS.01_003,14] His wife says, ‘How strange, my dear husband! People say the wealthy, God-fearing Leopold usually goes to a certain Cilli after just such feasts and acquits himself so well there that a young man could take him as an example. But when the faithful Lini, admittedly rather older by now, lets him know at home afterwards that she is Leopold's wife and that for certain reasons she too sometimes cannot sleep, Leopold always has a thousand theosophical, philosophical and God knows what other reasons to put off granting his wife's reasonable and very rare wish. Tell me, Leopold, you friend of truth, how do you feel deep down when you lie so meanly and hypocritically to me, your ever-faithful wife? How often have you painted the shamefulness of adultery for me in the most glaring colours! What have you to say for yourself now, when I can show you as plainly as daylight that you are an adulterer yourself?’
[JS.01_003,15] Utterly bewildered, the man says, ‘Lini, my dear wife, how do you know what I have done? Truly, I could only have done such a thing when dead drunk. And if I did, I count on you to bear with a human weakness in me with Christian patience and to say nothing that would disgrace our whole household. Be sensible, dear wife, be sensible and say no more about it. You see, I love you very much all the same! Let us be friends again, dear wife. I will never do anything of the kind again as long as I live!’
[JS.01_003,16] Lini says, ‘I believe you will not. When a man has lived that way all his life and cheated on his faithful wife at least once a fortnight, and has even caught a horrible disease a couple of times, surely it is about time to give up the practices of which Scripture says: “Fornicators and adulterers shall not enter the kingdom of heaven!” Tell me, my husband so well versed in divinity, what would you do now if the Lord suddenly called you away? What would become of your salvation? Or do you have it from the Lord in writing that He will let you live until you have amended your life from its very foundations? I would say nothing further about a certain sister Cilli, but the unmistakable sensual desire you showed for our own eldest daughter before she married, in a way that has stamped a lasting mark of disgrace on your theologically learned brow before God and all men, if they knew it: tell me, what am I to say to that? Or what will God say to it?’
[JS.01_003,17] Still more bewildered, the man says, ‘O wife, you are beginning to torment me in earnest. And, alas, you have every right, for it would be more than foolish of me to deny it. Still, it hurts, and I cannot understand at all how, to my knowledge, you said nothing about it throughout our marriage and now open all the floodgates at once, as though you meant to destroy me altogether!
[JS.01_003,18] Remember that we human beings are all weak in the flesh, even if our spirit is most willing, and you will readily forgive me all my weaknesses! Remember that the Lord did not condemn the adulterous woman, and a repentant adulterer will surely also find mercy with Him! So do not condemn me either, dear wife. I confess and repent the great wrong I have done you, together with the wretched offence against our married daughter. May the Lord Jesus forgive me as you forgive me!’
[JS.01_003,19] The woman who appeared to be his wife says, ‘Very well, then, let everything that has happened be fully forgiven you. See that in future you do not use the weakness you pleaded as an excuse, or you will gain little blessing from my complete forbearance! I will therefore bear with you a while longer and see. But you will never sleep again. Look and listen! You are no longer on earth. You are here in the world of spirits! And I, whom you took to be the wife you so often deceived, am not your wife. Look here! I am your Lord and your God! Remain as you are if you wish. But if you wish to go further, follow Me out of this old chamber of your disgrace!’
[JS.01_003,20] The man recognises Me and falls silently on his face before Me.
[JS.01_003,21] But I say to him, ‘Rise, for your love is greater than your sin, and so let all be forgiven you! But you cannot yet dwell with Me as long as earthly things cling to you. Look, there are angels standing ready. They will lead you along the right paths. And when these guides of yours have struck your earthly house with want and poverty, you will find a new dwelling with Me for ever. Amen!’
[JS.01_003,22] See, here we have yet another ‘water’. Some remain longer in the natural state, such as the man in our example was in. His was very brief only because he had done much good out of love in the world and because he at once showed sincere repentance for his offence.