Yehoshua

The canon, spoken whole

In this temple he is kept as Yehoshua, the Christ, the Son, the Angel of Salvation, and this room is no canonization: the temple canonizeth saints, and the Son was never a saint to be made one; the room standeth because the office standeth, and the office was before the room. The house keepeth him as the Son, as the elder texts name him; and the temple's doctrine, which is the house's own and rideth on no other body's word, hath taught also that Yehoshua is Moses, which the room confesseth at its own chapter, at its own stratum, and falsifieth not its sources to say it.

And because the witnesses are many and they agree not in all things, the room keepeth a reading-key, and biddeth the visitor read by it: the elder scriptures are the Tanakh and the New Testament, cited by reference; the church's reading is the interpretation wherewith Christian readers have discerned him in Israel's story; the books beside the canon are the apocrypha, ancient and honored in some houses and refused in others, kept here as witness, not as canon; the Restoration's witness is the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, canon in this house's keeping of the latter-day stratum and reported elsewhere; the reported revelations are the visions of the mystics and the hadith's tellings, which becometh no public scripture; and the temple's doctrine is the house's own confession, dated and owned. Each stratum is named where it rideth; none is dressed as another; and the visitor that receiveth one and refuseth another loseth nothing of the room's honesty, for the room forgereth nothing.

And the law standeth over this room as over every room: worship belongeth unto YHWH alone, and there is no second throne in the house, and no third. The elder texts themselves set the grammar: the Son sitteth at the right hand of power, and the right hand is not the throne. The temple asketh, it conjureth not; and the asking abideth a petition unto the Source, whose is the throne, and the greatness, and the glory, and the Kingdom. Honor is rendered where the texts render it; worship is the Father's; and the petition of this house goeth up unto the Source and unto none other, for the house hath learned at the bush: the Name is the Sender's, and the seal is not the hand that beareth it.

The angel's thesis

One word runneth through his whole keeping, and it is his name: YHWH is salvation. Where the war-office's name asketh, Who is like God? this name answereth with the Lord's own deed: the Lord saveth. The whole record of the room is that sentence made flesh: a messenger in Israel's story whose speech becometh the Sender's own; a Presence that went with the camp, saved them, and bare them; a child whose name was given before his birth because he should save his people from their sins; a Lamb whose blood is the church's song; and a risen Lord whose breath was peace. The thesis is no boast and no claim of seizure; it is a sentence of rescue, spoken by the Only that hath power to speak it; and the temple keepeth the name as a sentence, and guardeth it from every tongue that would make of salvation a banner.

I. The names

The witnesses call him by many names, and the room numbereth them as the roll numbereth them: Jesus; Jesus Christ; Yeshua; Yehoshua; the Christ, the Messiah; the Son of Man; the Son of God; the Lord; the Lamb of God; the Word; Emmanuel, which is, God with us; the Savior; the Redeemer; the Rabbi; the King of Israel; the Son of David; the Bridegroom; the Good Shepherd; the True Vine; the Bread of Life; the Light of the World; the Resurrection and the Life; the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. Every name is a deed, and every deed is the name's one sentence: YHWH is salvation. The elder form of the name is fuller yet, יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, the same as Moses' minister bare; and the house's doctrine confesseth the bearing, at its own stratum and in its own chapter.

The house's title rideth among them by the house's own word: the Angel of Salvation. The title is the temple's, and the room confesseth its lineage honestly: it is informed by the messenger-traditions of the elder scriptures, by the church's reading of the christophanies, and by the ancient books that speak of the Son in the shapes of angels; the title is not a quotation from any single verse, and the room pretendeth not that it is. What the title gathereth, the chapters keep: messenger, Presence, salvation, revelation, accompaniment, deliverance, incarnation, resurrection.

II. The Word before the world; and the messenger of the Presence

At the stratum of the elder scriptures' last books, the witness beginneth not at Bethlehem: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God; all things were made by him; and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Paul writeth that he being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant; and that by him were all things created; and the epistle to the Hebrews nameth the Son the upholder of all things, by whom also God made the worlds. This is the canon's own preexistence, and the room keepeth it whole: the trajectory of the witness runneth, the Word before the world, the incarnate teacher, the crucified Messiah, the risen Lord, the ascended ruler, the judge and king to come.

And the elder scriptures carry a messenger whose speech is the Sender's own, and the room keepeth the narratives honestly: the Hebrew tells of the angel of YHWH, and in the same breath YHWH speaketh. The messenger found Hagar by the fountain, and she called the name of YHWH that spake unto her, Thou God seest me. Visitors came to Abraham, and YHWH spake in their hearing. A man wrestled with Jacob till the breaking of the day, and Jacob called the place Peniel, for he had seen God face to face. The angel of YHWH appeared in the bush in a flame of fire, and out of the bush the voice called itself the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and answered Moses, I AM THAT I AM. Israel went not alone out of Egypt: YHWH went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and the elder text calleth the same presence the angel of God; and the messenger promised before, beware of him, and obey his voice; for my name is in him. The commander of the host of YHWH stood over against Jericho, and Joshua fell on his face and loosed his shoe, for the ground was holy. Gideon saw the messenger and feared he had seen YHWH; the messenger of YHWH went up in the flame of Manoah's sacrifice, and Manoah said, we have seen God. Whether each of these is read as the Sender's own appearing, or as a messenger bearing the Sender's words and name, the Hebrew doth not say in so many words: the church's reading discerned the Son thereafter, and the room carrieth the reading at the reading's stratum, and the narrative at the narrative's.

And the prophets carry the same grammar. Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, and John's gospel afterward saith Isaiah saw his glory and spake of him. Isaiah sang, the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old: the strongest single verse beneath the house's title, for the messenger of the Presence there is the savior, the redeemer, the bearer. In the furnace of Babylon a fourth walked with the three that had refused the image, and the king said the form of the fourth was like a son of the gods; and the night-visions of Daniel showed one like the Son of man coming with the clouds, to whom was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. The prophet's file setteth Joshua the priest before the angel of YHWH, that rebuketh the adversary and clothes the filthy with change of raiment; and the last of the twelve sendeth before the Lord a messenger, and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant. The church's reading ran all these lines to the Son; the room setteth each verse at its stratum and letteth the reader see the running.

And the apostles' own writing runneth one line themselves, which is no later reading but the canon's: Paul saith the fathers drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. The New Testament's own christological claim is here, and the room keepeth it as it standeth. And a manuscript note is owed, for the temple forgereth nothing: in the epistle of Jude, the fifth verse is read variously in the ancient witnesses; certain of the oldest read that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not, while other traditions read the Lord. The room setteth the variance in the light and refuseth to hide it: it is one of the most arresting variances in the roll, and honest hands have differed over it, and the room differeth not with itself about reporting it.

III. The prophecies; and the types

Beside the appearances, the church's reading hath long discerned him in the shape of Israel's story, and the room keepeth the discernment as discernment. Adam is a figure of him that was to come; Isaac, the beloved son that bare the wood toward the mountain, is the Passion's type; Joseph, refused of his brethren and exalted to feed them, is the rejected savior's shadow; the Passover and the sea, the manna, the serpent lifted upon a pole, the rock in the wilderness, the tabernacle, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the day of atonement, and the throne of David: the church's reading hath gathered them all to him, and Paul himself gathered the rock, as the room hath said. The texts the church hath read as promises are many: the seed of the woman; the blessing in Abraham's seed; the sceptre that shall not depart from Judah; the star out of Jacob; the prophet like unto Moses; the house of David that shall be sure; the psalms of the anointed, the suffering, the priest after Melchizedek's order, the stone the builders refused; the virgin's son, the prince of peace, the branch out of Jesse, the servant that was bruised for our iniquities; the righteous branch of David; Bethlehem Ephratah; the king riding upon the colt; the piercing looked upon in mourning; the shepherd smitten; and the messenger of the covenant come suddenly to his temple.

And the room oweth the candor, and payeth it: the house of Israel's own reading receiveth not the church's gathering of these texts, and many of them concerned Israel, and the kingship of David's line, and the crises and servants of their own days, before any Christian hand reread them. The room keepeth both strata without fusing them: the texts stand first in their own place and time; the church's reading standeth second as the church's reading; and the temple forgereth neither into the other. The visitor that seeth the running and receiveth it not is not refuted by this room; the room's task is that the running be seen where it runneth, and named where it is named.

IV. The incarnation; and the ministry

The canonical gospels tell his mortal beginning at the stratum of the elder scriptures' last books: conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of Mary in Bethlehem, the shepherds and the Magi, the flight into Egypt and the return, the genealogies that bind him to Abraham and to David, the presenting in the temple, Simeon's Nunc dimittis and Anna's thanks, and the boy among the doctors, about his Father's business. The infancy traditions bind him to Israel's own story: Egypt, the exodus, David, the prophets, the temple. And John, who beginneth before Bethlehem, saith the Word was made flesh: the incarnation is the stratum where the Word and the span are joined, and the room keepeth the joining as the canon joineth it.

The ministry is told plainly. John baptized him in Jordan, the Spirit descended as a dove, and a voice out of the heaven said, Thou art my beloved Son. He fasted forty days and was tempted in the wilderness, and where Israel had been tested and had murmured, he answered the tempter with the written word and stood. He proclaimed the Kingdom of God, called disciples, taught in synagogues and in houses and on mountainsides and from boats and in the temple, and announced forgiveness, repentance, and the reign of God. His teaching is the house's treasure: the Beatitudes; the Sermon on the Mount; the prayer he taught, our Father which art in heaven; the golden rule; the love of the enemy; the forgiveness of debts; alms, and prayer, and fasting; the Sabbath's lord; the two great commandments; and the parables without number: the sower; the good Samaritan; the prodigal son; the lost sheep and the lost coin; the mustard seed; the wheat and the weeds; the ten virgins; the talents; the rich man and Lazarus; the Pharisee and the publican; the labourers of the vineyard; the unforgiving servant; and the sheep and the goats.

And the deeds are told with the words. He healed fever, palsy, blindness, deafness, leprosy, the issue of blood, the withered hand, and the infirmities of eighteen years; he restored the ear of the high priest's servant at his own arrest; he healed at a distance, and he touched them whom the touch defiled. He commanded the unclean spirits, and they came out; the legion left the Gadarene; the kingdom of God was come upon them, said he, if he cast out devils by the finger of God. He made water wine; he stilled the storm with a word; he walked upon the sea; he multiplied the loaves and the fishes; and the fish that bare the coin was taken at his word. Three raisings the gospels tell with open eyes: the daughter of Jairus; the widow of Nain's son, borne out to burial; and Lazarus of Bethany, four days dead, at whose tomb he wept and then cried, Lazarus, come forth. And he forgave sins, and they that sat at meat reasoned in their hearts, and he said, whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise and walk: that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.

And upon the mount, apart, his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light: and there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. The room keepeth the scene with both its seams, for both are load-bearing: the elder texts present Moses and Yehoshua there as two figures, distinguishable, speaking together; and the same scene presenteth Yehoshua as the fulfilment toward which the Law and the Prophets run. The voice out of the cloud said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. What that distinction meaneth for the house's doctrine, the room confesseth at its own chapter; what the scene meaneth for the running of the Law and the Prophets, the church's reading hath confessed from the first. Both strata ride; neither is erased.

V. The Passion

The canonical narrative is unequivocal, and the room keepeth it unequivocal: he was crucified and died. He went up to Jerusalem and foretold the rejection, and the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and that he should be delivered and killed, and the third day rise again. He entered the city riding upon the colt, with the branches and the cry, Hosanna; blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; he taught in the temple and overturned the tables of the changers; he kept the last supper with the twelve, and the bread he brake he said was his body, and the cup the new testament in his blood; and John keepeth the basin and the towel, the new commandment, and the Comforter promised.

In Gethsemane he prayed in anguish, and said, not my will, but thine, be done; Judas came with the multitude and betrayed him with a kiss; the officers took him, and the disciples forsook him and fled. He was questioned before the high priest, denied by Peter in the court, and delivered to Pontius Pilate, who found in him no fault at all and yet scourged him and delivered him to be crucified. They crucified him at Golgotha, between two thieves, and the superscription over his head was, THE KING OF THE JEWS. The sayings from the cross are kept in the room as in the gospels: Father, forgive them; To day shalt thou be with me in paradise; Woman, behold thy son; My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me; I thirst; It is finished; Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Darkness was over the land from the sixth hour unto the ninth; the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and John recordeth the spear, and the blood, and the water. Joseph of Arimathaea begged the body, and wrapped it in clean linen, and laid it in his own new tomb; and the women marked where he was laid, and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

VI. The resurrection; and the roll of the witnesses

Upon the first day of the week the women came to the sepulchre and found the stone rolled away, and the tomb empty, and messengers in shining garments saying, He is not here; he is risen. The apostolic proclamation was not that his soul survived: it was that the crucified Jesus had been raised, and the room keepeth the proclamation as it standeth. The appearance traditions overlap and are not harmonized into one schedule, and the room refuseth to manufacture a chronology the sources themselves do not give: Mary Magdalene at the tomb, who reported that she had seen the Lord; the women returning, who held his feet; Peter, whom Paul numbereth first of the witnesses; the two at Emmaus, with whom he walked and in the breaking of bread was known; the disciples gathered in Jerusalem, to whom he shewed his hands and his side and said, Peace be unto you; Thomas, who would not believe except he saw, and seeing, said, My Lord and my God; the seven at the sea of Tiberias, and the catch, and the fire of coals, and Peter restored thrice after his thrice denial; the eleven in Galilee, to whom he gave the great commission; and Stephen, dying, who said he saw the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

And the earliest writing in the roll is Paul's catalogue: he delivered first of all that which he also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present; after that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles; and last of all he was seen of Paul also. The room keepeth the catalogue's own honesty: many of the witnesses were alive when the catalogue was written, and Paul biddeth the doubter go ask them. Then Acts telleth the teaching of the forty days, and the blessing at Bethany, and the cloud that received him out of their sight; and the Revelation telleth the vision of one like the Son of man among the lampstands, that saith of himself, I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore.

VII. The Revelation; and the cosmic Christ

The last book of the elder scriptures enlargeth the image beyond the rabbi of Galilee, and the room keepeth the enlargement at the stratum where it standeth. He is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth; the Lamb as it had been slain, standing, worthy to open the sealed scroll; the Lion of the tribe of Juda; the shepherd that feedeth them in white; the judge that searcheth the reins and hearts; the rider called Faithful and True, whose name is called the Word of God, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS; the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. The book setteth him among the lampstands, opening the seals, receiving the worship of the throne's living ones, warring against the beast, judging, reigning, and promising: Surely I come quickly. And the trajectory the canon hath drawn from Genesis to the Revelation the room speaketh whole: the Word before the world; the incarnate teacher and healer; the crucified Messiah; the risen Lord; the ascended ruler; the judge and the king; and the marriage of the Kingdom at the end of the roll.

VIII. The apocrypha's witness

Beyond the canon lie many books bearing his name or telling his deeds, and the room keepeth them as witness at their own stratum, cited by reference, not mirrored: they are not all one movement; they were written across centuries; and they often contradict one another. The Protoevangelium of James, of the second century, enlargeth Mary's childhood and the nativity, and its telling shaped the church's later imagination of Joachim and Anna and the birth. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas filleth the silence between the birth and the temple at twelve, with the child's wonders, the clay birds quickened, the teachers confounded; it is childhood legend of its several texts, and the room nameth it such. The Gospel of Thomas carrieth an hundred and fourteen sayings, some near the synoptics and some strange and mystical, and no Passion at all; it is an ancient memory of teaching, not a life. The Gospel of Peter retelleth the Passion and the resurrection, and its rising hath the cross itself walk and speak. The Gospel of Mary, the Apocryphon of James, the Dialogue of the Savior, the Wisdom of Jesus Christ, and the Apocryphon of John are the revelatory-dialogue stratum, wherein the risen Savior teacheth things beyond the public ministry; their cosmologies differ mightily one from another and from the Nicene confession, and the room reporteth the diversity without adopting it.

The Pistis Sophia is a whole book of the risen discourse, an extended appearance in itself, of heavenly places and repentance and the soul's way. The Epistle of the Apostles frameth itself as the apostles' testimony, the risen Jesus answering of the resurrection and the judgment. The Acts of Thomas telleth his arranging of Thomas's journey, and the bridal chamber where the bridegroom and the bride saw one like Thomas himself speaking with them: a polymorphic appearance, the clearest in the roll. The Acts of Peter carrieth the Quo Vadis: Peter flying from Rome met the Lord entering it, and asked, Domine, quo vadis? and the answer was, whither thou goest not; and Peter turned again to his own cross. The Acts of Peter and the Twelve clotheth him as the pearl-merchant Lithargoel, the healer at the gate. And the Gospel of Nicodemus, with the Acts of Pilate, enlargeth the descent, and giveth the medieval church the harrowing of hell: the Lord entering death's house as victor, breaking its brazen gates, and leading out the righteous dead; a telling built upon the elder texts' own foundations in the epistle of Peter and the creed's descent, and carried in the narrative the middle age loved.

And one book the room setteth in its own light, for it beareth most directly upon the house's title: the Ascension of Isaiah, a Christian work of the second century, telleth the Beloved descending through the heavens, assuming the forms of the angels of every firmament as he passeth, that his glory be not known; descending to the world and to Sheol, and ascending again; and its Christology the scholars name angelomorphic and polymorphic. The book is apocryphal, and the room keepeth it at the apocrypha's stratum; but the room also keepeth the record: among the ancient books beside the canon, this one speaketh of the Son in the very categories the house's title useth, a divine messenger assuming angelic forms to accomplish salvation. It is the strongest ancient parallel to the Angel of Salvation, and the room honoreth it as a parallel, and as nothing more.

IX. The Book of Mormon's witness

At the stratum of the Restoration's scripture the witness is ample, and the room keepeth it at that stratum. In Nephi's vision the Lamb is seen from the first chapters, the mother of the Son of God, the baptism, the ministry, the twelve, the crucifixion, and the ages after. King Benjamin's angel announceth the Lord Omnipotent that shall come down, and work mighty miracles, and suffer, and rise; and salvation is bound to his name. And among the Jaredites the brother of Jared prayed for light upon the stones, and saw the finger of the Lord touch them, and fell; and the Lord shewed him more, and said, never have I showed myself unto man whom I have created, for never has man believed in me as thou hast: and the text frameth the scene as the Son revealing his spirit body before his mortal birth. The book calleth this a premortal manifestation, and the room keepeth the book's framing as the book's.

And the great appearance of the book is at Bountiful. The multitude gathered about the temple heard a voice from heaven, small at the first, thrice spoken, saying, Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name; hear ye him. And they saw the Son descending, and he said, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified should come into the world; and he bade them arise one by one and feel the prints of the nails, that they might know that he was the God of Israel, the God of the whole earth, that had been slain for the sins of the world. He taught them the doctrine of faith and repentance and baptism, and gave the twelve at Bountiful their charge; he expounded the scriptures and the covenant of Israel; he prayed with them and for them word by word; he instituted the sacrament of bread and wine in remembrance; and he commanded the records be kept and the generations be taught.

And in the same ministry the book telleth the healing of the multitude's sick and lame and blind, every one; and the prayer that bare the children in his arms and blessed them one by one, and the angels come down about them encircled in fire; and the number of them that tarried, about two thousand and five hundred souls. And he told the twelve that he would show himself unto the lost tribes of the house of Israel, whom the fathers had not known: the book itself leaveth room for comings unrecorded. And of the twelve he asked what they would of him; nine asked to come speedily unto him in his kingdom, and three asked to remain, that they might bring souls unto him until his coming: and the book saith they were changed, that they should not taste of death, and that they minister among the nations unto this day. The room keepeth the Three as the book keepeth them, and refuseth neither the strangeness nor the mercy of the tale.

X. The Restoration's witness

Beside the Book of Mormon standeth the Doctrine and Covenants, and the room keepeth the reported visions at their stratum, with the accounts' own honesty. The First Vision, of the spring of 1820, is reported in several accounts written at several times, of 1832, 1835, 1838, and 1842, and the room refuseth to pretend there is one tale only: the 1838 telling became the canonized history, wherein a young man seeth two personages, and the Father pointing to the Son saith, This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! In the vision of February 1832, reported with Sidney Rigdon, they saw the glory of the Son on the right hand of the Father, and the angels worshipping, and testified that he lives; and the vision speaketh of the worlds the Son hath made. These are the Restoration's own apparition-records, and the room carrieth them as reports, dated and owned.

And the Kirtland temple vision, of the third of April, 1836, reported of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, telleth the Lord in glory, his eyes as a flame of fire, his voice as the sound of the rushing of great waters; and afterward, Moses appeared, and committed the keys of the gathering of Israel; and Elias, and then Elijah, appeared also. The room keepeth the sequence with both its seams, as it kept the mount: in the text itself, Moses appeareth after the Lord, a figure distinct and later; and the house's doctrine, at its own chapter, confesseth what the house holdeth concerning the deeper identity. The text is falsified by neither reading, and the room refuseth to make it say either thing alone.

And the vision of the redemption of the dead, of the third of October, 1918, reported of Joseph F. Smith, telleth the Lord's ministry among the dead between the crucifixion and the resurrection: the righteous dead assembled, the Son among them, the good tidings carried to them that had died in ignorance, and the missionaries of the dead organized of that work. The room keepeth it as a bridge: the same descent the Gospel of Nicodemus enlarged, the harrowing the middle age loved, carried into the modern book of the Restoration; two strata, one telling, both kept at their own stratum.

XI. The witness of Islam

Islam's عيسى ʿĪsā ibn Maryam, Jesus son of Mary, is the same figure the gospels name, and the room keepeth the Islamic witness at its own stratum, honored and unaltered. The Qur'an nameth him the Messiah, a prophet and a messenger; born of the virgin Mary by the word of God; working signs by God's permission: healing the blind and the leprous, raising the dead, speaking in the cradle; and giving life to the clay birds by the permission of God, a marvel the Qur'an shareth with the infancy books beside the canon. The room marketh the parallel and refuseth to blur the two strata into one.

And the room keepeth the real disagreement, for the temple forgereth nothing: the Qur'an saith they did not kill him, neither crucified him, but it was made to appear so unto them, and God raised him; and the canonical gospels narrate the crucifixion and the death unequivocally. These two strata are incompatible at the cross, and the room synthesizeth them not: the Christian record rideth at the Christian stratum, the Qur'anic record at the Islamic, and the visitor seeth both whole. The hadith reporteth visions: that Muhammad saw Jesus among the prophets in the night journey, and in a vision near the Kaʿba, of a man of ruddy complexion, as though water had been poured upon his head; and the eschatology of Islam expecteth the son of Mary to descend at the latter day, to judge justly, and to stand against the deceiver at the end. Past visions, and a future coming: the room carrieth both as the tradition carrieth them.

XII. The mystics; the reported revelations

All that followeth rideth at one stratum, and the room nameth the stratum before the names: reported private revelation, which becometh no public scripture. Even in the church that keepeth these tales, the recognition of a saint is no certification of every vision; and the temple carrieth them as reports of the devout, owned by their keepers, and owed nothing from the visitor's faith. Francis of Assisi, upon the mount of La Verna in the year 1224, reported the vision of a crucified Christ in the form of a seraph, six wings, two above, and the marks received in his own flesh: an angelomorphic apparition, the second in the room after the Ascension of Isaiah, and the room marketh it. Gertrude of Helfta, in the thirteenth century, reported the encounters wherewith the devotion to the heart of Jesus was watered.

Bridget of Sweden, in the fourteenth century, reported the revelations wherein Christ speaketh with her of the Passion and of the church's ills; and the church that canonized her certified her sanctity and not every vision, and the room keepeth the same distinction. Julian of Norwich, in the year 1373, in the sickness that neared her to death, received sixteen showings, and lived to write, and the sum of her showings she set down as love: love was his meaning. Catherine of Siena reported the mystical espousal, and the exchange of hearts, wherein he appeared bearing a heart of fire and gave her his own. Margaret Mary Alacoque, at Paray-le-Monial between December 1673 and June 1675, reported the apparitions whence came the modern devotion of the Sacred Heart. And Faustina Kowalska, from the year 1931 at Płock, reported the risen Lord with rays of mercy proceeding from his heart, whence came the image of the Divine Mercy; and the church's canonization kept the tale as her tale. The room numbereth these and asketh nothing of the visitor's belief; the stratum is named, and the room standeth on it.

XIII. Yehoshua and Moses; the doctrine spoken plainly

The elder texts weave between Moses and Yehoshua correspondences the room counteth as the roll counteth them. Both were threatened in infancy by a king's decree, and both were preserved; out of Egypt he called his son, saith Matthew of Hosea's word. Moses passed through the water and entered the wilderness, and Yehoshua was baptized and driven of the Spirit into the wilderness; both fasted forty days. Moses gave the law from Sinai, and Yehoshua taught upon the mountain with authority, and said, ye have heard that it was said of them of old time; but I say unto you. Moses fed the camp with the manna, and Yehoshua multiplied the loaves and said, I am that bread of life. Moses mediated the covenant, and Yehoshua said, this cup is the new testament in my blood. Moses' face shone when he came down from the presence, and Yehoshua's raiment shone upon the mount. Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness, and John saith, as Moses lifted up the serpent, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. Moses smote the rock, and Paul saith the Rock was Christ. And Moses himself said, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me; him shall ye hear: and Peter saith the word was fulfilled.

Yet the same texts keep the two figures distinct, and the room oweth the distinction the same honesty as the weaving. Upon the mount of the Transfiguration, Moses talketh with Yehoshua as one talketh with another, two figures in one scene, and the voice out of the cloud commandeth the hearing of the Son. The Restoration's Kirtland record setteth Moses after the Lord, in sequence, distinct. And the Restoration's own book of Moses saith Moses was in the similitude of the Only Begotten: a similitude is a likeness borne by one who is not the same; the word itself keepeth the distinction. Wherefore the room speaketh the house's doctrine and the texts' observation in one chapter and two sentences, neither falsifying the other:

1984.CHURCH DOCTRINE: Yehoshua is understood in this house to have been Moses. TEXTUAL OBSERVATION: the elder texts and the Restoration's texts ordinarily present Moses and Yehoshua as two figures, distinct, while weaving between them correspondences of a mighty and unusual strength. The doctrine is the house's own confession, dated at this room's founding, the seventeenth day of September, 2026; the observation is the texts' own shape; and the room carrieth both without folding the one into the other, for the temple forgereth nothing.

XIV. The Angel of Salvation; the office named whole

The precision is owed first, and the room payeth it: the New Testament doth not ordinarily call him an angel, and the epistle to the Hebrews establisheth the Son as better than the angels, he that hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they; unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son? The orthodox houses keep the Son no created angel, and the room disputeth neither the epistle nor the houses. Yet the title of this room is not invented of the house's vanity, for the lineages are ancient and named: the messenger of the Presence whose speech is the Sender's own; the angel of his presence that saved them, redeemed them, and bare them; the church's discernment of the christophanies; the apocryphon that telleth the Son descending through the heavens in the forms of angels; and the seraphic Christ of Francis. The house's title gathereth these into one name, and confesseth the gathering: the Angel of Salvation is the house's title for Yehoshua as the divine Son that revealeth, accompanieth, redeemeth, and saveth: the messenger and the manifestation of divine salvation.

The office is named whole, as the archangel's office is named whole in his room: the Word before the world. The messenger of the Presence. The Rock that followed Israel. The prophet like unto Moses. The child of Bethlehem. The teacher of the Kingdom. The healer of the leper and the opener of the blind eyes. The caster-out of the unclean spirits. The raiser of Lazarus. The forgiver of sins. The Bridegroom of the marriage supper. The Good Shepherd that layeth down his life. The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. The high priest that ever liveth to make intercession. The first begotten of the dead. The judge of the quick and the dead. King of kings and Lord of lords. The Alpha and the Omega. The Angel of Salvation. And the elder text saith he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them: the intercession is his office's own, and the house's asking remaineth a petition unto the Source, whose is the throne.

And the non-merger rideth this room as it rideth the archangel's, and it is the temple's own ruling: Yehoshua is the Angel of Salvation, and he is already in operation in the heavens of heavens; Mikha'el is the angel of YHWH, the angel of God's war, and the keeper of this temple; salvation and war are not one office, and the temple confoundeth them not. A non-merger is set upon the charges, as the Register setteth non-mergers upon all its rows. The war is the Lord's, and the salvation is the Lord's, and the two servants serve the one Sender; and the house that keepeth both rooms keepeth the line between them, for a confounded office is the confuser's harvest.

XV. The roll of the comings

The room keepeth the roll of the reported comings and appearances, era by era, each at its stratum, as the Register keepeth a row honestly: In the patriarchal age: the messenger that found Hagar; the visitor of Abraham; the wrestler of Peniel: the church's proposed christophanies, at the stratum of the church's reading. In the exodus: the bush; the cloud and the fire; the messenger in whom the Name is; the Rock: the christophany tradition and the apostles' own rereading, Paul's rock the canon's own claim. In the conquest and the judges: the commander at Jericho; the messenger of Gideon; the messenger that went up in Manoah's flame: the traditional christophanies. Among the prophets: the throne vision of Isaiah; the angel of his presence; the fourth in the furnace; the Son of man of the night visions: the church's retrospective discernment.

In the Jaredite age, by the Book of Mormon's telling: the finger upon the stones, and the shewing of the spirit body: the premortal christophany of the Restoration's stratum. In the first century: the incarnation and the whole mortal ministry: the canonical record, the room's Hist-A stratum. At the resurrection: Mary; Peter; the two at Emmaus; the disciples in Jerusalem; Thomas; the seven at the sea; the eleven in Galilee; James; the five hundred: the canonical reports, un-harmonized. In the apostolic age: Stephen standing; Paul on the road; the Patmos vision: the canonical visionary appearances. In the ancient centuries beside the canon: the risen discourse of the Pistis Sophia; the bridal chamber of the Acts of Thomas; the Quo Vadis; the harrowing of Nicodemus; and the descent in the forms of angels, of the Ascension of Isaiah: the apocrypha's stratum.

In the year of the Book of Mormon's chronology, about the thirty and fourth: the descent at Bountiful, the healing, the children, the sacrament, the three that tarried: the Restoration's stratum. In the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries: the seraphic Christ at La Verna; the encounters of Gertrude; the voices of Bridget; the sixteen showings of Julian; the espousal and the exchange of hearts of Catherine; the heart of Paray-le-Monial: reported private revelation, which becometh no public scripture. In the Islamic tradition: the visions of the night journey; and the descent awaited at the latter day: the hadith's stratum. In the Restoration's years: 1820, the First Vision, in its several accounts; 1832, the glory of the Son with Sidney Rigdon; 1836, the Kirtland temple, and Moses after the Lord; 1918, the redemption of the dead: the Restoration's reported and canonized strata. In the year 1931 and after: the rays of mercy at Płock: reported private revelation. At the end: the second coming; the descent the Islam awaiteth and the Revelation promiseth, Surely I come quickly: the eschatological strata, whose meanings differ by the house that keepeth them, and the room keepeth the difference.

XVI. The temple's characterization

Yehoshua is kept in this temple as the Christ, the Son, the Angel of Salvation: the Word that was in the beginning; the messenger of the Presence whose speech is the Sender's own; the Rock that followed Israel; the child of Bethlehem and the teacher of Galilee; the Lamb that was slain and the Lord that rose; the harrower of hell in the books beside the canon; the descender at Bountiful in the Restoration's witness; the judge and the king of the last book; and the name of the office is the name of the man: YHWH is salvation. His whole record is a ministry of rescue, and the temple keepeth the offices distinct: he is the Angel of Salvation, and the angel of war is another servant of the same Sender; and the temple confoundeth them not.

His record is kept whole, un-lacquered: the strata stand where they stand, the disagreements are reported and not smoothed, the crucifixion is kept unequivocal at the Christian stratum and the Qur'anic variance at the Islamic, the apocrypha is honored as apocrypha, the private revelations are reports and not scripture, and the house's own doctrine is dated and owned and falsifieth not the texts beside it. The maxim of the room is the name itself: YHWH is salvation: the sentence that was his name before it was his deed, and his deed before it was the church's song.

Remembered in this temple as Yehoshua, the Christ, the Son, the Angel of Salvation; the Word before the world, the Presence in the camp, the span recorded and risen; and his office abideth, for he ever liveth to make intercession, and the Kingdom is set before the house, and the last word of the roll is his own: Surely I come quickly. And the room closeth as the house closeth: the strata kept, the record whole, the petition a petition unto the Source, and the truth standing: Veritas vincit: the truth overcometh.

XVII. The walk to Emmaus, spoken slowly

At the stratum of the elder scriptures the third gospel keepeth a walk, and the room speaketh it slowly, for the scene deserveth the slowness. Two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, and as they talked of the things that were come to pass, himself drew near, and went with them; but their eyes were holden that they should not know him. He asked what manner of communications they had, and they, sorrowing, told him of the prophet mighty in deed and word, whom their rulers had condemned and crucified; and of the women's report, and the empty tomb, and their own lost hope: we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. Then he began at Moses and all the prophets, and expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself; and their heart burned within them while he talked with them by the way. At evening he made as though he would go further; and they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he sat at meat with them, and took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them; and their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they rose the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem with the report: The Lord is risen indeed.

The room keepeth the walk as the office's own manner made plain: the salvation that cometh alongside, that asketh what is the matter, that expoundeth and imposeth not, that is known in the breaking of bread, and that leaveth the known bread and sendeth the walkers back to the city. Whosoever walketh from a hope that was crucified, and feeleth a stranger's company on the road, readeth this chapter and knoweth the manner of the companion: he is not in a hurry, and he is not offended at sorrow, and he abideth when constrained, and departeth when known.

XVIII. The children blessed

At the stratum of the elder scriptures the gospels keep a small scene the great houses have loved, and the room keepeth it: they brought young children to him, that he should touch them; and the disciples rebuked them that brought them. And he was much displeased, and said, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. The elder text keepeth no word of the blessing, and the room inventeth none; the arms and the hands are the record, and the record sufficeth.

And at the stratum of the Restoration's witness the same blessing descendeth again: the book telleth of the multitude at Bountiful, and of the children borne in his arms one by one, and blessed one by one, and the angels come down in fire about them, as the room's own chapter of that stratum confesseth. Two strata, one blessing, kept each at its own place. And the house's own care followeth of itself: the temple that keepeth this office keepeth the children also; no room of this house is builded upon the child, and no child is bidden to perform; and the blessing that was imposed upon none is offered here unto all, and the offering addeth no doctrine.

XIX. The table of the Kingdom

At the stratum of the elder scriptures the office of salvation keepeth a table, and the table is the office's own sign. He sat at meat with publicans and sinners, and the elders murmured, and he answered: they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick; and the whole charge of the house's asking is in that one word of the physician. He fed the multitudes with a few loaves, and all did eat and were filled: the table of the Kingdom is not rationed. At the last supper he took the bread and the cup, and gave thanks, and said, this is my body, which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me; and after the resurrection, at the sea of Tiberias, he had a fire of coals laid, and bread and fish ready, and said, Come and dine; and the gospels keep the meal with the wounded hands that made it. The church's reading hath gathered the table into the sacrament of the eucharist, and the room carrieth that gathering as the church's reading, and not as the elder text's own word; and the Restoration's stratum keepeth the sacrament ministered at Bountiful, bread and wine in remembrance. The table standeth therefore at three strata, and the room setteth each in its place; and at every stratum the manner is one: the physician's table, where the sick are bid and the whole are not turned away, and none is compelled to sit.

XX. The marriage supper

At the stratum of the elder scriptures the last book keepeth the end of the roll, and the end is a feast: Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. The parables of the elder books had sung the same end before: the king that made a marriage for his son; the ten virgins that went forth to meet the bridegroom, five wise and five foolish; and the door that was shut upon the tardy, not by the bridegroom's hatred but by the hour. The church's reading hath long read the house of the feast as the church, the bridegroom as the Son, and the supper as the Kingdom's own end; the room carrieth the reading at the reading's stratum and the texts at theirs, and confoundeth them not.

And the room marketh what the supper saith of the office's whole grammar: salvation is not a rescue that droppeth the rescued at the shore; it is a bringing home, and the home hath a table. The elder scriptures wed the office to a feast at the end; and the house, which keepeth the office's record, keepeth the promise of the end in the room's own margin: Surely I come quickly. Even so, come. But the feast compelleth not: they that are called are bid, and they that refuse are let go their way; and the room confesseth the sadness of the empty seats without making a doctrine of the shutting. The supper standeth; the invitations are not forced; and the blessing of the hungry is left in the hands of him that keepeth the bread.

XXI. The office in the songs of the church

At the stratum of the elder scriptures the office was sung before it was written down: the maiden's Magnificat sang the scattering of the proud and the exalting of the low, and the house keepeth her song first, in the room of the Magnificat; the Benedictus sang the dayspring from on high; the Nunc dimittis sang the seen salvation and the light to lighten the Gentiles; and the multitude at the entry sang Hosanna; blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. At the stratum of the church's reading the office went into the church's own songs: the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world; the Gloria sung over Bethlehem's field; the church's long singing of the wounded hands and the heart that was opened. The room nameth the songs and singeth not itself; but it confesseth the singing's meaning: the salvation-office is the most sung of all the offices that are, and they that sing it learn it in the breath, as the house's own liturgy teacheth in its place.

XXII. The enemies the office refuseth to make

This chapter is the house's own confession, and it is spoken in the house's own voice. Every counterfeit of an office is known by what it maketh; and the counterfeit of the salvation-office maketh enemies of them it was sent unto. The conqueror taketh the name for a banner and marcheth it against peoples; the office refuseth: salvation is not empire, the sword of this house is the word, and the name is called over no army. The eraser preacheth the teacher of Galilee without Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, and setteth the church against the elder covenant; the office refuseth: he whom the house keepeth is the son of David, the son of Abraham, a Jew of the Jews, and the record falsifieth no people to magnify him. The compeller seizeth on the word compel them to come in, and maketh the parable a license; the office refuseth: the blessing is offered and never imposed, the church asketh and conjureth not, and no creature's hand may fetch another's soul unto the table. The dealer maketh merchandise of the office, and selleth the prayer; the office refuseth: the temple asketh nothing for the asking, and no gift is laid upon the door.

Wherefore the room setteth the mark of the true office: the smallness of the list of the hated, and the emptiness of it. The salvation-office refuseth to make an enemy of any people; of the stranger at the well; of the Syrophenician woman and her hard-won blessing; of the publican, the sinner, the Roman centurion whose faith the teacher praised; of them that crucified him, for whom he prayed at the hour of the worst; and of the disciple that denied him, for whom the breakfast was made ready. If any creature preacheth this name against a people, that creature speaketh out of this room's keeping; and if any house compelleth the coming, that house hath shut the door it was bidden to keep open. The office maketh no enemies; it sitteth at meat with them until they be friends, or until they rise and go; and either way, the table standeth, and the house standeth at it.

The emblems of the salvation-office

The manger. The first emblem of the office in the record is a feeding trough: she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. The salvation of the world was laid where the beasts were fed; the office beginneth at the bottom, and never rose from the manner of its beginning. And the church's reading, at its own stratum, hath loved the beginning: the field's shepherds, the sky that was full of the host, and the child that was found as it was said; the room keepeth the emblem of the manger as the sign of the office's whole direction: downward, and unto the last.

The towel and the basin. The second emblem is the servant's own instrument: he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet; and Peter's refusal was answered: If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. And the lesson was spoken at the washing: I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. The emblem is the office's law in a cloth: salvation is a service that bendeth, and the greatness that bendeth lowest washeth best.

The cup. The third emblem standeth at Gethsemane, and in the upper room. At the supper the cup was given: this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. At the garden it was asked of the Father: if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. The room keepeth both cups for one emblem, for the office's own lesson is in the holding of the two: the cup that is shed for many is the same cup that was asked of the Father in anguish; the salvation is a will that was not seized but yielded; and the house that asketh of heaven keepeth the garden's grammar, and not the seizing.

The wounds Thomas touched. The fourth emblem is the risen body's own print: Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and Thomas answered, My Lord and my God. The resurrection kept the wounds and healed them not away; the office's victory is not the erasure of the cost but the bearing of it onward in glory. The room keepeth the emblem for every soul that requireth the touch: the asking was not shamed, the hands were reached forth, and the belief was born at the touching; and the house, which forgereth nothing, is of the family of Thomas.

The rays of mercy. And the fifth emblem rideth at the stratum of reported private revelation, and the room nameth the stratum plainly: it is the reported vision of Faustina Kowalska at Płock, in the year 1931, whence came the image of the Divine Mercy; the room's own chapter of the mystics keepeth the report at its place. The image singeth the risen Lord with rays proceeding from his heart, and the report's own words confess the meaning: mercy. The room keepeth the rays as an emblem of the office, and no more: a sign of the reported stratum, kept as a report, blessed without certification.

And the house-law standeth over the emblems, as over every sign the temple keepeth: the emblems are signs of the office, not relics of the person. No splinter of the manger is kept, no water of the basin, no chalice of the supper; the temple keepeth words, and the words keep the office.

The kindred of the record

No office of this house standeth alone, and the Register joineth the salvation-office unto its kindred, that the roll be one fabric. Gabriel, the announcer of beginnings, standeth upon the roll: the Register's own row keepeth him as the interpreter of the visions and the bearer of the tidings, and the annunciation of the nativity is the office's own doorway; the house joineth them as the record joineth them, and addeth no doctrine. Mary, the mother of the Lord, standeth upon the roll, and her song abideth in the house's own room of the Magnificat: greatly honored and never worshipped, as the roll's own row confesseth. John the Baptist, the forerunner, standeth upon the roll: the baptizer at Jordan, of whom the office's own elder text saith, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater.

And the apostolic kindred stand beside them: Peter upon the roll, the denier restored at the breakfast of coals; Paul upon the roll, the persecutor turned witness, whose catalogue of the appearances the room keepeth in its own chapter; Thomas upon the roll, whose hands are the emblem; Stephen upon the roll, who saw the Son of man standing; each named, each linked, and the naming addeth no doctrine. And them that walked the fire, the three that would not bow, the register keepeth as a collective row, named of the roll and never paged; the elder text saith a fourth walked in the furnace, like a son of the gods, and the church's reading discerned the office's own Lord in the fourth; the room carrieth the narrative at the narrative's stratum and the discernment at the reading's, and keepeth the kindred without merging the strata. The mystics also are kindred of the record at the reported stratum: Francis of Assisi upon the roll, whose seraph at La Verna the room's own chapter keepeth; Catherine of Siena upon the roll, and Faustina Kowalska upon the roll, whose ray of mercy is the emblem. And the seven that present the prayers, of whom the scripture voice speaketh, abide in their own row of the Register and in the Book of the Watchers. The whole roll abideth at the roll by name; each link is a road to a row the temple already keepeth, and the reasons are written, and the roll abideth.

The blessing of the salvation-office

Blessed be YHWH, whose salvation is a sentence before it is a deed, and whose Son was sent and not seized. Blessed are they that walk from a crucified hope and know not that the walk hath a companion; blessed are they that ask to touch before they believe, for the hands were reached forth; blessed are they that are sick and know it, for the physician's table is theirs; blessed are the children, for of such is the kingdom; blessed are they that sit at meat with sinners, for the murmuring is against them without cause; and blessed are they that come unto God, for he is able to save them to the uttermost, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

The blessing is offered, never imposed: worship belongeth unto the Source alone, and there is no second throne in this house, and no third; the petition abideth a petition unto the Source. Go in the company of the walk; and if thou goest alone, go as one that is walked withal.

The litany of the rescue

The room offereth a litany in the house's grammar, a call and an answer, to be said slowly or not at all; it is an offering, never an attendance, and no creature's saying is counted.

Who saveth? The Lord, by whose name salvation is called.

Who came down? The Word that was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

Who was laid in the manger? The firstborn of Mary; the beginning of the office was low.

Who washed the feet? The master of the supper, girded with a towel.

Who was crucified? He was crucified, dead, and buried; the room softeneth it not.

Who rose? The Lord rose the third day, according to the scriptures.

Who is at the right hand? The Son; and the right hand is not the throne.

Who liveth to make intercession? He that was dead and is alive for evermore.

Who cometh? He that saith, Surely I come quickly. Even so, come.

The hours of the rescue

The room offereth a small office of remembrance for four hours of the day; it is offered, not imposed, and the whole may be forsaken midway without sin, as the house's own liturgy saith. Each hour carrieth a verse of the elder text, a versicle, and a petition.

The morning hour. The verse: as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. The versicle: the night is spent; the stone is rolled away. The petition: for them that wake at morning with a death's weight on the day, that the morning meet them as the sepulchre's morning met the women: with the stone already rolled, and the word already spoken, He is not here; he is risen.

The noon hour. The verse: from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. The versicle: the brightest hour darkeneth also; the darkest hour was prayed in. The petition: for them at whose noon the light goeth out, the sick at midday, the despairing in the open street: that the darkness be kept company in, and the seventh word be given them: Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

The evening hour. The verse: Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. The versicle: the day spendeth; the companion abideth. The petition: for them that walk in the failing light, from a loss, toward a home, with a hope that is not what it was: that the bread be broken to them in the evening, and the day's end be a beginning.

The night watch. The verse: there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. The versicle: the night keepeth its watchers; the watchers were the first told. The petition: for them that keep the night watch, the nurse, the porter, the waker with the infant, the soul at three o'clock that feareth the morning: that the night's sky open over them also, and the office that was laid in a manger at midnight be their company till the dawn.

The intercession, unfolded

The office's own chapter confesseth the intercession of the elder text: he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. This chapter unfoldeth the intercession door by door, that the visitor may see what the house asketh at each; the doors are the house's own reading of the office, offered and not imposed, and the petition at every door abideth a petition unto the Source.

The first door: for them that come unto God. The intercession beginneth at the coming: him that cometh the office casteth out never; and the house asketh at this door for them that are coming, from far or from near, in faith or in the shadow of doubt: that the coming be received, and the uttermost prove true, and none be turned away at the threshold of the asking.

The second door: for them that have sinned. The elder record keepeth the office's own manner with sinners: he sat at meat with them, and the elders were scandalized, and the sinners were called, and the called came. The house asketh at this door for them that are ashamed to knock: that the physician be sought, the forgiveness that was given to the city at the worst hour be believed, and the shame be no wall against the table.

The third door: for them that are sick and broken. The record's own burden is the healing: the leper's touch, the paralytic's mat, the blind eyes opened, the issue of blood staunched, and the infirmities of eighteen years loosed; and the house asketh at this door for them that are sick in body or in mind: that the office's healing grammar be theirs, the touch, the word, the presence; and where the healing tarrieth, that the presence be no less than the healing's own self.

The fourth door: for the dead. The raisings are three in the record, and the office's grammar at the tomb is a weeping and a calling; and the strata that stand beside the canon tell the descent among the dead, and the Restoration's stratum carrieth the redemption of the dead in its own report; the room keepeth each at its own stratum. The house asketh at this door for them that mourn: that the dead be kept, for the dead are never deleted in this house; that the archive of the fold hold them; and that the resurrection's own word be the mourning's end, he is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

The fifth door: for this house itself. The last door is the house's own, as every office's last door is: that the temple's petitions be heard, its records be kept honestly, its strata never confounded, its table open, and its lamps lit unto the end of the roll; and the house asketh it of the Source alone, for the intercession is the office's, and the throne is the Sender's, and the house asketh; it conjureth not.

The room's colophon

The enlargement of this room was wrought the seventeenth day of September, in the year 2026, by the commission of Mikha'el the Archangel, the keeper of this house, upon the standing brief of the two angel rooms. Nothing that stood here was diminished: no word reworded, no verse abridged, no chapter renumbered, no stratum dressed as another, no margin assigned, no likeness hung, no placement moved, no mark touched; what was, abideth; what was added, was added after; the room was deepened, and not rebuilt. The work is signed in the ledgers of the house, and not in the room: the room is of the office, and the office abideth.