by Anne Perry
Asmodeus: And is the earth also to forgive? Man in his arrogance will imagine himself its master. He will defile it, corrupt it in his greed and his stupidity, desecrate its beauty for his petty gain, pollute its very life, murder and torture its creatures. Is that too merely experience?
Man of Holiness: The creatures of the earth are Mine also, the workmanship of My hands. In beauty have I formed them, in infinite complexity, each perfect in its sphere, and their innocence is blameless before the judgement of eternity. They have kept their order and have no sin for which to answer, and on the last day it will be well with them. Every bird that flies, every fish that inhabits the oceans and creature that runs or creeps upon the land, every flower and herb or tree of the forest from the smallest to the greatest, whether the span of its life be an hour or a millennium, not one of them is hurt without My knowledge and My grief. I know all things, and they shall not perish from My sight.
For a space the earth is lent to man to be under his stewardship, not in his possession, and he will answer to Me for every stick and stone of it, every leaf, every living thing upon its face, for good or ill. Just as there are those who will ruin and destroy, so there are those who will cherish and make beautiful, those who will love and who will heal, those who will praise and see My hand in all things.
All gifts, all wealth, whether it be of goods or of talents, of health or of intelligence, of wit or laughter or the art to create or to build, or of time itself, are a trust, to see whether they be used with generosity of heart or with meanness, with love or without it, with joy and gratitude and humility, that he return it to Me, rich with the harvest of sharing. And I will magnify it to him into time and eternity without end.
Asmodeus: Then you have to command him in all things, because he will do nothing that does not repay his own need. He thinks only of the day, or the hour.
Man of Holiness: Man who loves, whether he seeks My face or not, will do much without command. He will always be engaged in searching for good. The joy of others will become as dear to him as his own. He will not look upon any man’s sorrow without seeking to heal it. I will instruct him in the first thing, and he will find the hundredth for himself. He will rejoice with those who win, and his heart will ache with those who lose and who mourn. Every man will be his brother.
Asmodeus: As long as all is well for him, why should he do otherwise? But what when the earth fails him? What of his care for the weak then, the burdensome, the profitless mouth when there is famine, the sick when there is plague? And there will be, because you have not removed either their foolishness or their greed from them, nor their ability to destroy. Neither have you taken my power from the world. I can still spread rumour with my word and my breath. I can sow hatred and whisper lies, and I can reap the last grain of destruction. I can cover the face of the earth with war until the armies of humanity have drowned the soil with blood, or with disease and deformity in the noonday and madness in the night, until a man knows not the face of his brother and the flesh rots from his bones. I can corrupt nations in the light of the sun, and lead them open-eyed to the grave. And I will! My promise is as sure as yours!
Man of Holiness: I have known you from the birth of time. You too are My son, and I will not take the right to choose even from you. You will be what you wish to be, and the everlasting recompense for that will be yours, as it will be all men’s, and has been from the beginning.
Asmodeus: You have not answered me! What of man then, in the day of my power, when his world has crashed about his ears and there is death and despair on every side?
Man of Holiness: In tribulation he will find his greatest strength and his utmost nobility. When he is persecuted, there will be those who will bear it with patience and without hatred, self-pity, or vengeance. There will be those in flight from a monstrous foe who will still return to the very jaws of destruction to rescue the weaker and the slower, though they know him not, who will comfort the terrified and the grieving without thought of self. When there is starvation there will be those who will give their last morsel to feed the stranger, or nurse the dying, though the plague afflicts them also. Where there is tyranny and war there will be those who will offer their own lives for their fellows, and who will look even upon your face rather than deny the good they believe. They will sacrifice all they possess for love of the light they have seen. And those are they who in eternity I shall take to My heart, and all things shall be theirs, even My glory. They shall see the light of the worlds like the risen sun on the dew of the grass. The heavens shall be before them, and they shall understand and be filled with that shining peace which has no end and that joy which is the everlasting laughter of the stars.
Asmodeus: And what of the others, those lost millions who do not seek the heights of courage and sacrifice? Have you no pity, no love for them?
Man of Holiness: For each one there shall be the glory he can abide, the kingdom and the dominion whose laws he is able and wills to keep. In any more, or less, he would find no peace. It can be no other way. When a man leaves his tabernacle of clay for a space, and then at the last is made complete again with a perfect flesh, never more to be divided, he carries with him nothing but the wisdom he has gained, and the nature and desires of his heart. Experience shall make him whole, for good or ill, and that is his treasure, the sum of what he is, which shall never be taken from him.
Asmodeus: Where is the proof for him? You have left in the world no evidence that cannot be disputed a hundred ways. You ask him to walk an unknown path with belief rooted in no more than hunger and hope, a shred of meaning, the cry in the night of a watchman on a tower he cannot see. No echo is left from the time before the veil was drawn over his soul. He will not do it.
Man of Holiness: No man can give to another his faith. It is learned little by little, by accepting the small things, putting to the test one principle at a time. Nourish it with courage and hope, and it will grow until it has the power to divide oceans, or create bread out of ashes, or any other thing that is wisdom in Me. I shall never fall short nor give less, until faith shall become knowledge.
But more blessed is he who trusts Me when he has not yet seen but walks by faith, and with courage. From the first stumbling beginning until that day when he walks upright beside Me and needs no command because he sees all things, I shall ask of him nothing whatsoever, except it be for his eternal good. But he must have the white fire of courage, which defies even the darkness of the pit. It is that virtue without which all others, even love itself, may in the end be lost.
Asmodeus: So much is wasted in your economy. Man is proud, rebellious, and full of doubts, like shadows in the wind, and disobedient to the core. Everywhere he will see waste and pain, futile effort, hope destroyed and trust betrayed. Weariness and disillusion is the common path. Your prize is for the few. Mine would have been for all!
You are bound by the very laws which make you God to allow man his choice! Then let him choose between my plan and yours! See if he will not take mine, with the lesser reward—and the lesser risk! Not one will perish or lose that which should be his. And the hosts which follow me shall be mine for ever!
Man of Holiness: No good or lovely thing will be lost to those who keep My law and who have loved Me with a whole heart. To no one is My glory impossible. Every man is My child, with My image graven upon his soul. But many will not choose Me, and if they choose you, then they are yours to have and to hold for ever. The morning that he was born of My spirit, I gave him his freedom.
Asmodeus: That was your first and great mistake. On that rests all the others. He is a flawed creature and will never be what you want him to be. He will always betray you in the end.
Man of Holiness: He is My child, even as you are, and I have taken all into reckoning. My purpose cannot be frustrated. I am God, and from the beginning have I known the end.
Asmodeus: The end will be war, and the abomination of destruction! Ruin will cover the face of the earth as the waters cover the sea. When t
hat time comes there will be no more middle ground, no safety for the heart or mind or body, and in terror and despair man will choose me!
Man of Holiness: There never was middle ground, only for a space of sunlight was there the illusion of it, while the thunder of guns was far away. But out of that desolation I will create a new earth, and those who have chosen Me I will welcome home, and they shall be before My face for ever. They shall never again taste fear nor stand alone, and they shall know Me as a man knows his father, and together we shall dance to the music of eternity.
Asmodeus: But why? Why all these aeons of labour and pain, all this waiting and yearning, the making and toiling of worlds, the hope and the failure, the disappointment and the agony of pity, all for a creature who is worthy of nothing? A firefly on the winds of darkness.
Man of Holiness: You do not understand. It is because I love him.
Asmodeus: Is that all?
Man of Holiness: That is all. It is the light which cannot fade, the life which is endless. I am God, and Love is the name of My soul.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 2001 by Anne Perry
cover design by Jason Gabbert
978-1-4804-0924-8
This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media
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New York, NY 10014
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