TO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH IN WUHAN

I know thy works, your strength and vigour, your courage and perseverance have not gone without notice. The incense of your life fills the portals of heaven at the hour of prayer.

I know your love, which the scribes of heaven have well written of. The accuser of the brethren, yes, protests that you have loved that your multitude of sins be covered. And to him have I replied once, and twice he has heard that I know all things.

However, I know also that you have fallen for the trick of Balaam, you have hidden in your heart a lust for want, and in your cupboard is found the ghost of Nimrod. Behold I have mocked you with your own donkey, it has spoken without a word, and you have heard his reprimand even without an ear. 

He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches. You have embodied the pride of man, you have stood before the dragon's mirror and mimicked his lofty looks. I have flogged you with your colt's rope, nay, with the feather of a fowl. I have not assigned the host of heaven to fight against you, lest I should wipe off man who I have made. I have long borne the stench of man's incense, the odour of his boasts, his tricks, his politics, his unrighteous quests and designs. Did I not part the Red Sea by the blast of my nostrils? I made the magicians of Pharoah see my finger, and yet did not I show all of my arm against Egypt. Did the tower at Babel; the making of Nimrod's whims not fall by my counsel? I have drawn your ears away from flattery but you have again made your own praise to be your ears' delight.

If you have shaken at the sound of my footsteps, what shall you be when I stamp on you with the weight of my feet. I have against you what I had against Nebuchadnezzar, and I have done to you what I did to him. He repented after his malady had left him, would you repent after your malady leaves you, after this foul wind has ceased? He humbled himself, and gave honour to me after he had seen his vulnerability, would you humble yourself after this gentle fouled wind has shown you your feebleness? Would you return that which is sacred to its sacredness? Would you rebuild the altars of sanctity and cleans the sanctuary of justice? Would you repent of the foulness of the incense of your lives, and make clean the sheets of your beds? Behold you have been shaken by this mockery which I have allowed in a little measure, should you not humble yourself under my might and repent of your ways under the weight of my truth? 

The Jew has said of the Greek, 'behold a gentile', the Greek has said of the Jew, 'behold a Barbarian', yet has the world over which you have sneezed not united in fear of your cold. The days may come when I will dish unto you in full measure this bowl if you do not heed my voice. Now, let the preacher speak at the roof top, let the minstrel sing of the fear of the Lord, and let the ruler seek out the counsel of the godly, that you put me to remembrance in your days.

_Okwuchukwu Augustine Ndulue.