I

People come to the earth and it’s rare to encounter God,

and it’s also rare to have the opportunity to seek and to gain the truth.

Why would you not prize this beautiful time

as the right path to pursue in this life?

And why are you always so dismissive toward the truth and justice?

Why are you always trampling on and ruining yourselves

for that unrighteousness and filth that toys with people?

Your lives should be full of justice, truth, and holiness;

your lives should not be depraved so early, leading you to fall into Hades.

Do you not feel that this would be a terrible misfortune?

II

All of you should do the utterly perfect work of yours

and sacrifice it upon God’s altar,

making of it the ultimate, unique sacrifice, that you render unto God.

You should all stand firm in your own stance

and not be blown about with every passing breeze like clouds in the sky.

You toil for half a lifetime, yet you let your pig- and dog-like parents

drag the truth and the significance of your personal existence into the tomb.

Do you not think this is a great injustice against you?

Do you not feel that living life in this way is utterly meaningless?

III

God told you long ago

that you today, who are as indifferent as you are yet unwilling to depart,

would in the end be subsumed and swallowed up by the waves created by Him.

Can you really protect yourselves?

Are you really confident that your current method of pursuit

will ensure that you are perfected?

Is your heart not very intransigent?

Is your heart not very intransigent?

This kind of following, this kind of pursuit,

this kind of life, and character—

how could it gain God’s approval?

from The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Words for the Young and the Old