Methuselah

Remember in the Gospel of Luke? And you'll notice there that I've underlined names that come straight out of Genesis 5.

Can you see that? Sem, meaning Shem, Noe, the New Testament word for Noah, Lamech, Methuselah, Enoch, Jared, Malaliel, Canaan, Enos, Seth, Adam, all the way back to God.

So you say, what's the purpose of all these genealogies? Very important to trace the messianic line, the seed of the woman, all the way to Christ.

Do you get that? Good.

He's still alive when Mahalil is alive.

Jared, we know that name, that's a bit easier.

Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech.

So you come right within one generation of Noah and all...

And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.

And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: [clears throat] And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters.

And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: And he called his name Noah, saying, [clears throat] This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.

And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters.

And so through that, there was the preservation of faith.

"Give me the note," she said, "and wait till I get upstairs.

Then answer the door and tell Methuselah that Miss Ainsley will be down in a moment." Lady Hampshire stole up to Agatha's room and hastily assumed her gray wig, her spectacles, her rouge, her large elastic-sided boots, her lip salve, her creaking alpaca gown- And with the envelope containing banknotes for two hundred and fifty pounds, addressed in Agatha's dramatic sloping handwriting to the messenger of MS, descended again to her sitting room.

Methuselah rose as she entered, and she made him her ordinary prim Agatha bow, and spoke in Miss Ainslie's husky treble voice.

"The messenger of MS," she observed.

"Quite so." "That is my name for the present," said the old man in a fruity tenor.

Before her was a sordid old ruin of humanity, red-eyed, white-bearded, a prey, it would seem, to lumbago, nasal guitar, and other senile ailments.

Probably in a few minutes, for it was scarcely a quarter past three yet, Colonel Ascot would arrive, and again her head whirled at the thought of the possible nightmares that Providence still had in store for her.

Methuselah blew his nose.

He read, Darling, I will be ashes in the void between the stars when you read this.

That sounds silly, but it's the truth, unless I can give old Methuselah a run for his money.

I sadden when I think that you will be gone tomorrow, the same as dead.

But if they need ten, and if you are one who can withstand suspension, what can we do? Know that my love goes with you across the ages, Eric.

He was only fifty-four, but the pale face, the full, flowing beard, and the long white hair topped by a small blue skullcap gave him an ageless look, as though centuries of time had flowed over him to leave behind only the marks of experience and wisdom.

The timelessness of an idealized Methuselah as he approached his ninth centennial, the God-given wisdom engraved on the face of Moses as he came down from Sinai, the mystic power of mighty Merlin as he softly intoned a spell of albamancy.

All these seemed to have been blended carefully together and infused into the man who sat behind the typer, composing sentences in his head.

Those gull hands swooped suddenly to the keyboard, and the aged machine clattered rapidly for nearly a minute before Dr. Joachim paused again to consider his next words.

And after that I said, Blessed is the man who dies in righteousness and goodness, concerning whom there is no book of unrighteousness written, and against whom no day of judgment shall be found.

And those seven holy ones brought me and placed me on the earth before the door of my house and said to me, Declare everything to thy son Methuselah, and show to all thy children that no flesh is righteous in the sight of the lord for he is their creator one year we will leave thee with thy son till thou givest thy last commands that thou mayest teach thy children and record it for them and testify to all thy children and in the second year they shall take thee from their midst let thy heart be strong for the good shall announce righteousness to the good the righteous with the righteous shall rejoice and shall offer congratulation to one another but the sinners shall die with the sinners and the apostate go down with the apostate and those who practise righteousness shall die on account of the deeds of men and be taken away on account of the doings of the godless and in those days they ceased to speak to me and i came to my people blessing the lord of the world chapter eighty two charge given to enoch the four intercalary days the stars which lead the seasons and the months chapter eighty two and now my son methuselah all these things i am recounting to thee and writing down for thee and i have revealed to thee everything and given thee books concerning all these so preserve my son methuselah the books from thy father's hand and see that thou deliver them to the generations of the world i have given wisdom to thee and to thy children and thy children that shall be to thee that they may give it to their children for generations this wisdom namely that passeth their thought and those who understand it shall not sleep but shall listen with the ear that they may learn this wisdom and it shall please those that eat thereof better than good food blessed are all the righteous blessed are all those who walk in the way of righteousness and sin not as the sinners in the reckoning of all their days in which the sun traverses the heaven entering into and departing from the portals for thirty days with the heads of thousands of the order of the stars together with the four which are intercalated which divide the four portions of the year which lead them and enter with them four days owing to them men shall be at fault and not reckon them in the whole reckoning of the year yea men shall be at fault and not recognise them accurately for they belong to the reckoning of the year and are truly recorded thereon for ever one in the first portal and one in the third and one in the fourth and one in the sixth and the year is completed in three hundred and sixty-four days and the account thereof is accurate and the recorded reckoning thereof exact for the luminaries and months and festivals and years and days has uriel shown and revealed to me to whom the lord of the whole creation of the world hath subjected the host of heaven and he has power over night and day in the heaven to cause the light to give light to men sun moon and stars and all the powers of the heaven which revolve in their circular chariots and these are the orders of the stars which set in their places and in their seasons and festivals and months and these are the names of those who lead them who watch that they enter at their times in their orders in their seasons in their months in their periods of dominion and in their positions their four leaders who divide the four parts of the year enter first and after them the twelve leaders of the orders who divide the months And for the three hundred and sixty days there are heads over thousands who divide the days.

And for the four intercalary days there are the leaders which sunder the four parts of the year.

And these heads over thousands are intercalated between leader and leader, each behind a station, but their leaders make the division.

Chapters 106 and 107.

Chapter 106.

And after some days my son Methuselah took a wife for his son Lamech, and she became pregnant by him and bore a son.

And his body was white as snow and red as the blooming of a rose, and the hair of his head and his long locks were white as wool, and his eyes beautiful.

Some generations passed, and in the scant record we come upon one name that shines brightly in the story.

Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters, and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years.

And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

God and Enoch were good friends.

If human love brings such joy, the love of Christ brings infinitely more.

Enoch's walking with God was not interrupted by the experiences of his life.

Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat sons and daughters.

Some people suppose they could continue to walk with God if they were engaged all the time in religious work, but they do not suppose it possible to maintain an unbroken communion when they have to be at work in the shop, in the office, or in the kitchen.

Sedulius makes mention of him in his metrical paschal poem as follows.

When Gentile poets with their fictions vain in tragic language and bombastic strain to their god Gaiat, comic deity, loud praises sing, etc., geat was the son of tatwa who was the son of beow who was the son of skeldi who was the son of heremod who was the son of etermon who was the son of hathra who was the son of guala who was the son of bedwig who was the son of Shem, who was the son of Noah, who was the son of Lamech, who was the son of Methuselah, who was the son of Enoch, who was the son of Malalakai, who was the son of Canaan, who was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam.

The mother of Alfred was named Asberga, a religious woman, noble both by birth and by nature.

She was daughter of Aslak, the famous butler of King Aethelwulf, which Aslak was a goth by nation, descended from the goths and jutes of the seed namely of Stuf and Huitgar, two brothers and counts.