The Angel of Life

                                                Watercolour by Margaret M Brownlow
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Be not ungrateful to thy Creator, for He hath given thee life.
Seek not the law in thy scriptures, for the law is Life, whereas the scriptures are only words.  I tell thee truly, Moses received not his laws from God in writing, but through the living word.  The law is living word of living God to living prophets for living men.  In everything that is life is the law written.
It is found in the grass, in the trees, in the river, in the mountains, in the birds of heaven, in the forest creatures and in the fishes of the sea; but it is found chiefly in thyselves.
All living things are nearer to God than the scriptures that are without life.
God so made life and all living things that they might by the everliving word teach the laws of the Heavenly Father and the Earthly Mother to the sons of men.
God wrote not the laws in the pages of books, but in thy heart and in thy spirit.
They are in thy breath, thy blood, thy bone; in thy flesh, thine eyes, thine ears, and in every little part of thy body.  They are present in the air, in the water, in the earth,in the plants, in the sunbeams, in the depths and in the heights.  They all speak to thee that thou mayest understand the tongue and the will of the living God.
The scriptures are the works of man, but life and all its hosts are the work of God.
First, O Great Creator!  Thou didst create the Heavenly Powers and thou didst reveal the Heavenly Laws!
Thou gavest unto us understanding from thine own mind, and thou madst our bodily life.
We are grateful, Heavenly Father, for all thy manifold gifts of life: for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, for the precious things put forth by the moon, for the great things of the ancient mountains, for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth.
We are grateful Heavenly Father, for the vigour of health, health of the body, wise, bright and clear-eyed, with swiftness of foot, quick hearing of the ears, strength of the arms and eyesight of the eagle.
For all the manifold gifts of Life, we do worship the Fire of Life, and the Holy Light of the Heavenly Order.
We do worship the Fire, the good and the friendly, the Fire of Life!  The most beneficial and the most helpful, the Fire of Life.  The most supporting, the most bountiful, that Fire which is the House of the Lord!
Behold now the Child of Light who doth commune with the Angel of Life.

                                                                                     Taken from the Essene Gospels