NEUOFFENBARUNGDeutscher Text · Book contents
21 December 1843, evening
[Ste.01_002,01] Someone may say here, ‘It is quite true that the real fruit of reading can only be reaped by reading that leads to action. But when someone is given so much material, surely he can set it aside for the sake of acting and read only so much of it as he is sure he can put into practice.
[Ste.01_002,02] Think of the vast amount given in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and the far greater mass of books that truly expound their spiritual meaning! If one were to read all of this only in proportion to one's ability to act, one would scarcely get through a couple of chapters in an entire lifetime.’
[Ste.01_002,03] But I say: considered from this point of view, the objector is certainly right. If one were to read only what one was thoroughly convinced one could actually practise, even a couple of chapters would indeed be too many! Look at the matter from another point of view, though, and the material given is never too much. The reader can put all that is read into effect at once.
[Ste.01_002,04] One might say, for instance: if a farmer owns a large field with good soil that yields him a hundredfold harvest, why does he not sow the whole field? A tenth of it bears as much as he needs for his own purposes.
[Ste.01_002,05] But I ask: if the farmer sows the whole field with good grain and it brings him a hundredfold harvest, a tenth of which is sufficient to maintain him, will the other nine tenths do him harm because they are surplus? Certainly not! He can distribute half the surplus among people in need, who will be most grateful to him for it, and take the other half to market. Since it is good grain, he will find many buyers willing to take it at favourable prices. With the money he earns he can put the rest of his household in order and thereby become a prosperous farmer of standing.
[Ste.01_002,06] See, it is plain from this example that if someone has a good field within him and an abundance of good seed besides, he should sow freely. Whoever sows abundantly will reap abundantly, and whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly. What, then, is needed? Once the soil of the field is well worked, you may sow as much good grain on it as you please. Not a grain will perish in the good soil, and each will send up its stalk in abundance.
[Ste.01_002,07] The same holds here for the spiritual sowing of the Word through reading.
[Ste.01_002,08] To work the spiritual soil, a person needs no more than the two commandments of love. With these he can readily work his spiritual field. Once it is worked, anyone may sow as much as he can and wishes in its soil. That is, he may read as much of the good that has been given as he can rightly obtain, the whole of Holy Scripture and all the explanations that bear upon it. Of all he takes into himself, there will be nothing that fails to give him an abundant harvest.
[Ste.01_002,09] For the difference between barren and fruitful reading is this:
[Ste.01_002,10] Suppose someone wishes by reading alone to work upon himself and awaken himself. The undertaking is just like scattering seed on an unworked field that has neither been manured nor ploughed. Will the birds not come at once out of the air and eat most of it in a short time? And will the small portion that fell among the weeds not soon be choked by them, so that at harvest time not a grain will be seen anywhere to have shot up into a stalk?
[Ste.01_002,11] When the sower or reader sees no harvest from his trouble, will he not grow disheartened and in the end curse the field and all the grain he sowed that brought him no harvest?
[Ste.01_002,12] To put it plainly, such people then cease to believe, fall away from the whole good cause, and in the end take it for sheer deception.
[Ste.01_002,13] Things go quite differently when someone has first quickened his spirit through true love for Me and for his neighbour, or rather has set it free out of Me, and has thereby duly manured and ploughed his field. He then reads the writings of My grace and mercy with a different purpose. His field has already been made good. He reads to behold Me ever more clearly face to face, for it is I who awakened the spirit in him through his love for Me, and thus to grow more and more, if possible, in love for Me and from it in love for his neighbour.
[Ste.01_002,14] In this case, will he not find every word from Me living and eternally true, being himself already alive within? If he is not alive within beforehand, will not even the most living word be put to death in him?
[Ste.01_002,15] Throw gold coins into a foul-smelling puddle, and its coarse sulphurous salt will dissolve the gold coins and turn them too into filthy mud. But throw baser metals into a true tincture of gold, and in the end they will all become like noble gold.
[Ste.01_002,16] See, that is precisely the case here too. By reading My Word and by hearing it, anyone can gain immeasurably for himself and his brothers, if first, by observing the two laws, he has changed himself into a tincture of gold. But if he is still a puddle, however many gold coins are thrown into it, they will surely never make the puddle a tincture of gold.
[Ste.01_002,17] So it is also said, ‘To whoever has, more shall be given, so that he may have in abundance. But whoever has not shall lose even what he has!’ Here ‘to have’ means to possess a good, manured and ploughed field, or to be in oneself a perfect vessel full of the true, genuine tincture of gold, which is a free, living spirit. ‘Not to have’ means to scatter seed on an unworked field, so that the sower can expect no harvest and loses the seed he scattered as well. It also means to be a puddle full of coarse sulphurous salt within oneself. The gold thrown into it can never turn it into a tincture of gold, and that gold itself is lost besides.
[Ste.01_002,18] I think this should be fairly clear. Whoever still cannot see the truth by the light of this torch will scarcely ever be freed from the cataract in his eyes. But as I have said, a blind man never has too much light. So towards the end of this gift of a sun I will concentrate the light of all the central suns in one point. By that most intense light it will be all the clearer who really is quite blind. More such concluding reminders will follow!