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" 'Lord, humankind is sentient and suffering!'
" 'Must we argue again about Nature? Humankind is my creation,Memnoch, and its development whether you know it or not followsmy Laws.'
" 'But, Lord, everything under the sun dies eventually, and thesesouls have the potential to live forever! They are outside the cycle! Theyare made of invisible will and knowledge. Lord, surely they weremeant within the Laws to come to Heaven, how could it not be? I amasking you, Lord, I am asking you to tell me, because as much as Ilove you, I don't understand.'
" 'Memnoch, the invisible and the willful are embodied in my angelsand they obey my laws.'
" 'Yes, Lord, but they don't die. And you talk to us, and you revealyourself to us, and you love us, and you let us see things.'
" 'You don't think the beauty of Creation reveals my light toHumankind? You don't think these souls, which you yourself havebrought here, have not developed out of a perception of the glory ofall that has been made?'
" 'Many more could come, Lord, with just a little help. The numberhere now is so small. Lord, the lower animals, what can theyconceive of that they cannot have? I mean, the lion conceives of the meatof the gazelle and he gets it, does he not? Human souls have conceivedof Almighty God and are longing for Him.'
" 'You've proved that to me already,' he said. 'You've proved it toall of Heaven.'
" 'But these were a few! Lord, if you were only flesh and blood, ifyou had only gone down as I did?
, iviemnocn.
" 'No, Lord, forgive me, but I can't deny you my finest efforts,and my finest efforts at logic tell me that if you went down and becameflesh and blood as I did, you would better know these Creatureswhom you think you know but you don't!'
"No answer.
" 'Lord, your light doesn't penetrate human flesh. It mistakes itfor animal flesh and always has! Lord, you may know all but youdon't know every tiny thing! You can't, or you couldn't leave thesesouls languishing in Sheol in agony. And you could not allow thesuffering of men and women on Earth to go without context. I don'tbelieve it! I don't believe you would do it! I don't believe it.'
" 'Memnoch, for me it is only necessary to say something once.'
"I didn't answer.
" 'I'm being gentle with you,' He said.
" 'Yes, you are, but you are wrong, and in that, too, you arewrong, for you would hear your anthems of praise sung over and overwithout end and forever, and Lord! These souls could come to youand sing those anthems.'
" 'I don't need the anthems, Memnoch,' He said.
" 'Then why do we sing?'
" 'You of all my angels are the only one who accuses me! Whodoes not trust in me. Why, these souls you brought from Sheol trustin me as you do not! That was your standard for selecting them! Thatthey trusted in the Wisdom of God.'
"I couldn't be silenced:
" 'I knew something when I was flesh and blood, Lord, whichupheld all that I had suspected before, and which confirms all I haveseen since. What can I do, Lord, tell you lies? Speak things with mytongue that are flat-out falsehoods? Lord, in humankind you havemade something that even you do not fully comprehend! There canbe no other explanation, for if there is, then there is no Nature andthere are no Laws.'
" 'Get out of my sight, Memnoch. Go down to Earth and get awayfrom me and interfere with Nothing, do you hear?'
" 'Put it to the test, Lord. Become flesh and blood as I did. Youwho can do anything, sheath yourself in flesh?
" 'Silence, Memnoch.'
" 'Or if you do not dare to do that, if it is unworthy of the Creatorto understand in every cell his Creation, then silence all the anthemsof Angels and Men! Silence them, since you say you do not needthem, and observe then what your Creation means to you!'
" 'I cast you out, Memnoch!' He declared, and in an instant all ofHeaven had reappeared around me, the entire bene ha elohim and withit the millions of souls of the saved, and Michael and Raphael werestanding before me, watching in horror as I was forced backwardsright out of the gates and into the whirlwind.
" 'You are merciless to your Creations, my Lord!' I roared as loudas I could over the din of distressful singing. 'Those men and womenmade in your own image are right to despise you, for nine-tenths ofthem would be better off if they had never been born!' "Memnoch stopped.
He made a little frown, just a tiny very perfectly symmetricalscowl for a moment, and then lowered his head as if listening tosomething. Then slowly he turned to me.
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