"How Can We Expect to Express Our American Independence Unless We Get Away from Soliciting,
Borrowing and Begging?

"We Do Not Consider Smoking and Drinking Intoxicating Liquors Felonious
but We Consider They Are Not Uplifting or Profitable"

 

"FATHER DIVINE'S Message" At the Ball Park Lehigh Avenue and Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Tuesday, September 5, 1939 A.D.F.D., Time: 7:48 P.M.

 

FATHER DIVINE

FATHER DIVINE

 

 

 

 

FATHER'S Personal arrival at the Ball Park after HE had served the afternoon Banquet at the Musical Fund Hall, made the meeting more enthusiastic than it had been, for many Philadelphians waited to get a glimpse of the Personal BODY, as well as the immediate followers and coworkers. Several speakers, including Mr. Charles McBride, candidate for mayor, took advantage of the opportunity to speak, after which several letters from "Righteousness Marches On" were read by one of the secretaries. To the delight of one and all, our SAVIOR, at the conclusion of the reading, arose and delivered the beautiful little Message which is herein transcribed!

For all of YOUR love to the children of men and for these gems of wisdom which YOU have expounded to the world at large and those YOU will hereafter bring forth from YOUR Infinite Storehouse of DIVINE OMNISCIENCE, we thank and praise THEE!

(The foregoing statement comes from the transcriber, after which FATHER speaks as follows:)

 

 

 

PEACE, EVERYONE: Life, Liberty and the Reality of Happiness to you I bring again and hope to have it established in the hearts and lives of men wheresoever man is found!

At this instance I have arisen to verify the statement of the reading of "Righteousness Marches On," especially where you heard one of the former aldermen and prominent New York statesman, who said voluntarily, that MY Work in the City of New York, by his own experience according to a very conservative estimate, is saving the City of New York at least around two million dollars annually by MY followers being taken off of the Welfare and Reliefs.

Now this statement came as a surprise to ME and all of MY followers and immediate coworkers, as far as we are concerned. We did not know anything about it until someone called up over the telephone, called MY Office and told ME that this letter was published in the "New York Daily Herald Tribune." This was further investigated and Alderman Fairchild verified the statement. As an alderman, statesman and especially an investigator of the Relief Fund as an accountant, he can say and could give a more accurate account of what we are saving the City through the Relief than I could or any of MY immediate followers.

This he did without MY consideration as I afore said; therefore I must go by what a man of his experience says as an accountant, one who has well experienced the handling of the Relief fund while alderman and even now working in cooperation with the City department. I AM obliged to say, you all must see and know what it really means to take at least, twenty-five thousand off of the Relief in one city alone. This is not MY followers alone who are blessed by this, but the City's money, the tax payer's money is saved.

Think of New York City alone saving two million dollars annually, for MY followers and those who are influenced, they send in their resignations from the Relief rolls and go out and earn a livelihood and be honest, self-respecting, law-making and law-abiding citizens!

How can we expect to express our American independence unless we get away from soliciting, borrowing and begging? It is MY determination to rid this Country as much as possible of all progging, soliciting, borrowing and stealing, and I will declare to you--whether I AM in this City or in any other city--the influence of MY Spirit shall go forth conquering and to conquer and shall accomplish MY endeavors, for I have long since declared--

'It is not by power nor by might but by MY Spirit.'

Then since it is by MY Spirit, I need not do anything Personally but I will declare to the nations of the earth, with or without MY Bodily Form I will do all of MY endeavors. Aren't you glad?

Upon this Foundation if you will stand with the recognition of GOD'S Actual Presence in the hearts and lives of the children of men, if you can relax your conscious mentality, you can still yourselves as individuals---you can allow the Spirit to work for you, and the Spirit will do it!

The reason I speak so positively and the reason I stand so firm, it is because I know I have built upon a Foundation and AM still building for mankind a Foundation that cannot be shaken; for if all of the bodies who cooperate with ME individually, severally and collectively would go into oblivion the Spirit of MY Presence would work just as effectively, for MY Spirit will do it! Aren't you glad?

To live in this recognition you can shake off the mortal versionated concept of things, you can realize GOD'S Will is done according to your faith in HIM. It is not that you must necessarily do anything. You cannot bring it to pass, but the very Spirit of MY Presence by MY Words will bring forth that which I have declared, with or without a Bodily Form!

As I have had quite a number to come to this platform to shake hands with ME, to touch ME that they might be healed, that they might be delivered of all sorts of ailments and complaints and undesirable conditions, I AM telling them as I AM telling you,

'It is not by power nor by might but by MY Spirit," says the LORD.

If it is by the Spirit, then relax your conscious mentality and still yourselves egotistically from your ego and trust GOD whole-heartedly and MY Spirit will do it.

The reason I do not fear any man who walks upon the face of the earth, the reason I do not fear machine guns or anything of that sort, it is because, "It is not by power nor by might but by MY Spirit." Therefore with or without THIS BODY of MINE I will do it! Jot these thoughts down in your vocabularies and in your memory once and forever, for that which I have endeavored I will carry out as,

'It is not by power nor by might but by MY Spirit!'

Men who live in limitations and build upon the foundation of their skillful or intellectual ability, they know that when those things fail they are a failure totally, but GOD in HIS Own Majesty knows HE is GOD, not by physical might nor by physical power, not by intellectual ability, not by skillful ability, but by HIS SPIRIT. That is what I AM talking about!

GOD is a Spirit; therefore GOD is not Personal to be considered. But remember, whatsoever I desire I will accomplish even if I did not have a BODY--I will accomplish all of MY endeavors. I shall carry out MY Plan and MY Purpose, for it is by MY Spirit. Aren't you glad?

The insignificance of the insignificant physical Body as far as you can observe, would be inadequate and would not be eligible to meet the issues of life today to give HIMSELF food and raiments and comfort and convenience for the sustenance of the Body, but by MY SPIRIT every nation, language, tongue and people can be fed, can be sheltered and can be clothed. By MY Spirit I can and I will emancipate the whole of this democracy if they will allow ME to, by America allowing this Spirit of MINE or ME, as it may be termed, to hover her as JESUS desired to hover Jerusalem, as a hen hovers her brood!

If you Americans will harken unto GOD and bring your bodies into subjection to HIS Holy Word and live exactly according to the Constitution and its Amendments politically, and according to the Declaration of Independence economically and socially and politically, and then live exactly according to the Life and the Teaching of Jesus CHRIST religiously and spiritually, I will emancipate you even as I have emancipated millions of others!

'It is not by power nor by might but by MY Spirit.'

MY Spirit, I say, will do it! Then as I said this afternoon at the Banquet Table--hail the power of the NAME you hear. It is not so much of even the BODY of GOD from any angle expressible to be considered, saving by the recognition of it; but

"All hail the power of Jesus' Name "Let angels prostrate fall; " Bring forth the royal Diadem "And crown HIM LORD of all!'


(If you are under Christendom)

The Name of Jesus in Christendom and as you advance to the recognition of GOD'S Actual Presence, you can say with MY followers, with the spirit of sincerity--

"All hail the power of FATHER'S Name, "Let angels prostrate fall; "Bring forth the royal Diadem "And crown HIM LORD of all!'

You can say with MY followers, if you know the supernatural Truth, if you observe the Truth from a psychological point of view, if you observe the Truth from a spiritual point of view, you can say,

'Let every nation, every tribe "On this terrestrial ball, "Bring forth the royal Diadem "And crown HIM LORD of all!'

It is a privilege to be in the City of Brotherly Love, to stress once again no longer merely the invisibilization of brotherly love, nor the theory of brotherly love, but to bring into tangibilization--to tangibilate and reincarnate and to personify brotherly love and bring all of the nations of the earth together in the unity of the Spirit, of Mind, of Aim and of Purpose, that each and every one might express his brotherly love one to the other!

Then and only then can we express or claim to be representing the Brotherly love, the Universal Brotherhood of Man and the conscious realization of the Fatherhood of GOD. It affords ME no small degree of pleasure to have the privilege to invite speakers and teachers of every profession to speak in these assemblies where I gather the people together, that they might speak according to their respective profession and respective mission or calling--that they might contribute to humanity and to society the PEACE that is in them and permit ME also to do the same.

It has long since been declared and I redeclare the same--

'Give to the world the BEST you have and the BEST will come back to you.'

The BEST of everything that heart can desire comes to ME automatically, spontaneously without MY consideration. Aren't you glad? As with an individual, so with a nation. Every American citizen today should be off of the Relief--should not be on the Relief! If the millions that are under MY Personal supervision and jurisdiction were emancipated from the Relief with all the oppositions and the inconvenience and the conflicts that other citizens of America, as they are called, are trying to bring against ME and MINE, I can emancipate each and every one of the children of men--I mean to say, all mankind!

What a glorious world this will be when men learn to live Righteously, Soberly and GODLY. I venture to say, not one of MY real followers who is living according to MY Teaching would smoke a cigarette! It is not because they consider smoking a cigarette is a crime. We do not consider smoking a cigarette is felonious, but we do consider smoking and drinking intoxicating liquors, that men use as little vices, they are not uplifting. We do consider those things are not constructive, we consider those things are not profitable; therefore we wish to be profitable servants before GOD and before man!

It was said by one of MY critics up in New York City, that MY followers or MY Teaching had caused the people of Harlem, the beauty culturists of Harlem alone, to lose forty or fifty thousand dollars annually because MY followers do not indulge in cosmetics, because they do not indulge in makeup! But I tell you what they do indulge in. They indulge in eating and drinking and having a-full and a-plenty! They indulge in doing the thing that Jesus did. He fed the five thousand also fed the four thousand, and in Bible times, if you step a little further back, you will see that they had feast days where they feasted and had a-plenty to eat and gave thanks and praise to GOD for the blessings they had received.

MY followers believe in having a-plenty to eat! MY followers believe in buying nice respectable homes in decent and respectable neighborhoods! MY followers believe in cleaning up their communities and making their communities the right places in which to live! That is what MY followers believe in doing. Therefore the forty or fifty thousand dollars that they have not given to the beauty culturists, they are investing their forty or fifty thousand and hundreds of thousands of dollars in real property, becoming to be self-respecting, self-reliant and independent according to the Constitution and according to the Declaration of Independence!

How can you be independent when you are going around soliciting, begging, borrowing and stealing? Such an independence I AM not representing and I have not the least sympathy for such an independence! I desire to make an independence, as I was telling MY followers and friends today, that wheresoever you go as representatives of MINE--we may go from city to city and from state to state and preach the gospel absolutely independent, without soliciting or seeking one penny's remuneration or compensation or commission, or love offering for any of our work and service, for we are a Gift of GOD as was the Body called Jesus--the Son of GOD!

'GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS Only Begotten SON.'

Whosoever believes in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life. Now aren't you glad to be in this recognition? Aren't you glad to assert your real independence by the spirit of true Christianity such as I have reincarnated in you?

I have not only inserted it in you and among you and injected it in you, but it has actually been reincarnated in you and through this reincarnation and the Law of the Spirit of Life and the Law of Jesus CHRIST, you are becoming to be the personification of that independence which I bring to the earth plane. Hence to the prayer of Jesus,

'Let Your Kingdom come and let Your Will be done'


when the Law of the Spirit of Life that was in CHRIST Jesus shall have been established legally on the earth plane, there and then the Kingdom has come and the Will is done.

We shall legalize the Law of the Spirit of Life that was in CHRIST Jesus. Through this great conversion we shall bring into legalization the very Spirit and the Life and the Law of Jesus the CHRIST to the children of men and shall establish it as the only piece of Legislation for this advanced and modern civilization in which we are now living. I thank you. I thank you. I thank you!

 

 

PEACE, EVERYONE: I would like to say, we are going down here to the Banquet Table now. Those of the immediate coworkers and participators, as many of us as can be accommodated, we are going to be served. In the meantime, if there are any speakers, while we are serving we are glad to introduce you and receive you as we should receive strangers according to the Gospel.

I further wish to say once more, one thought for consideration as was mentioned by the minister this afternoon or this evening whichever. It is true, someone of your citizens of this great City did release some statement to the press , that the Baptist Association and all of the ministers and the leading citizens of his race--he said, "his race"-- did not want ME here.

But of course, of MY race, as through MY condescension I AM representing the "human race," I AM sure MY race wants ME here! Anything any less than the human race, of which is but one race in MY consideration, it must be the animal race, and that is not in MY consideration. I thank you!

The New Day: September 21, 1939 A.D.F.D., Pg. 35