Letters from Adina - #2

Letter II. Form without Spirit

The Temple of Jerusalem

My Dear Father,

Yesterday morning I was early on the house-top, to behold the first cloud of the day-dawn sacrifice rise from the bosom of the Temple.

How wonderful is our religion! How mysterious this daily sacrifice, so many hundreds of years offered up for the sins of our fathers and of ourselves!

Nearly three hundred years have passed since we have had a prophet — that divine and youthful Malachi!

Since his day, Rabbi Amos confesses that Jehovah has ceased from all known intercourse with his people and holy house; nor has He made any sign of having heard the prayers or heeded the sacrifices that have been offered to Him in His time!

I inquired of the intelligent Rabbi, if this would always be thus? He replied, that when Shiloh came there would be a restoration of all things — that the glory of Jerusalem then would fill the whole earth with the splendor of the sun, and that all nations should come up from the ends of the world to worship in the Temple.

He acknowledges that we are now under a cloud for our sins; but that a brighter day is coming when Zion shall be the joy of the whole earth.

My conversation with Rabbi Amos, dear father, a conversation which grew out of the subject of the Roman garrison occupying the citadel of David, and offering their pagan sacrifices by the side of our own smoking altars, led me to examine the Book of the Prophet Malachi.

I find that after plainly alluding to our present shame, and reproaching the priests ‘for causing the people to stumble, and thus making themselves ‘‘contemptible and base before all nations,’’ he thus prophesies:

"Behold, I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Behold,’ adds the divine seer, “I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”’

These words I read to-day to Rabbi Amos — indeed, I was reading them when Rabbi Ben Israel came in to say that he departs tomorrow.

The excellent Amos looked grave, graver than I had ever seen him look. I feared that I had offended him by my boldness, and approaching him, was about to embrace him, when I saw tears were sparkling in his eyes.

This discovery deeply affected me, you may be assured, dear father; and troubled more to have grieved than displeased him, I was about to ask his forgiveness for intruding these sacred subjects upon his notice, when he took my hand, and, smiling, while a glittering drop danced down his snow-white beard and broke into liquid diamonds upon my hand, he said:

  “You have done no wrong, child; sit down by me and be at peace with thyself.”

It is too true, in this day, what the Prophet Malachi writeth, Ben Israel,’’ he said, sadly, to the Alexandrian Rabbi. ‘‘The priests of the Temple have, indeed, become corrupt, save the few here and there! It must have been at this day the Prophet aimed his words.

  Save in the outward form, I fear the great body of our Levites have little more true religion and just knowledge of the one God Jehovah, than the priests of the Romish idolatry! Alas, I fear me, God regards our sacrifices with no more favor than He looks upon theirs!"

"I have noticed;’’ said Ben Israel, "that there is less reverence now in the Temple than when I was in Jerusalem a young man; but I find that the magnificence of the ceremonies is increased.”

“Yes,” responded Ben Amos, with a look of sorrow; ‘‘yes, as the soul of piety dies out from within, they gild the outside. The increased richness of the worship is copied from the Roman. So low are we fallen! Our worship, with all its gorgeousness, is as a sepulchre whitewashed to conceal the rottenness within!”

You may be convinced, my dear father, that  this confession; from such a source, deeply humbled me.

If, then, we are not worshiping God; what do we worship?

If Jehovah of Hosts, the God of our Fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, hides his face from our sacrifices; and is weary with our incense, whom does Israel worship?’ NOUGHT!

We are worse off than’ our barbarian conquerors, for we have no God.

Your affectionate

Adina.

Next Letter

LADY DONNA PROGRAM

The new Lady Donna Immersion in Spirituality, Academics and Citizenship @ the "I AM" School will study abridged excerpts of the Letters from Adina taken from Reverend Ingraham's original edited version of 'The Prince of the House of David', published by Cassell & Co. Ltd (1903), that reveal remarkable insights into the Living Etheric Record left by Beloved Jesus's Ministry in the Holy Land.