Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

546
THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
"He is not able to do, and in very truth He
"brought every man into being from a state of
"not being, and He created him in His own form,
God'spower"and constituted him a hving soul with the power
"""''°
tent.
"of speech and talk like an instrument, that every
"one might praise His holy name. Is there any
"reason which can lead thee to imagine that He
"created the children of men for naught? Set behind
"thee this folly of the mind and turn thee to the
"knowledge of understanding. Since God brought
"man into being from a state of not being is He
"without the power of raising him [from the dead]?
"But hearken, and be not doubting, and take heed
"unto that which I will speak unto thee, for mighty
"is the work of God Almighty. Now thou sayest
"that the bones of men crumble away and become
"dust, and that some men die in the river and
"the crocodiles eat them, and that some die [p. 347]
"in the desert and the wild beasts devour them,
"and their bones become dust on the face of the
"earth; but all these shall be gathered together,
"and they shall be raised up by the grace of the
Alexander "mcrcy of God Almighty when the blast of His
thT"resur- "trumpet shall sound by the hand of Michael the
recticn.
"Archaugel.
"At the first blast of the trumpet there shall be
"a storm of wind throughout the whole earth, and
"for these men of Avhom thou sayest that, 'Cro-
The first "codiles and wild beasts have devoured them,'
blast of the
I, ,
trumpet. and,
.
fjj
Havc they not
i- i
died and become dust?' the
"angels will be sent with the winds by God's