"First picture of FATHER DIVINE
taken in 1932 in Washington, D. C.
FATHER DIVINE resided at 72 Macon Street, Sayville, Long Island, New York
from the year 1919 until the year 1932.
It was during this time that FATHER DIVINE
spontaneously spoke the words contained in
'The Word of GOD Revealed,"
and they were volitionally recorded and transcribed.
The New Day Publishing Company, then at 20 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, printed one installment of the series of 70 each week from June 15, 1974 through November 22, 1975.
MOTHER (Peninnah)DIVINE
In Sayville, during the winter months of 1976 and 1977 MOTHER (Sweet Angel) DIVINE read and recorded on tape the entire sequence of "The Word of GOD Revealed." The tapes and CD's are now being sent out from Woodmont, the Mount of the House of the Lord, Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, 19035, where SHE and FATHER DIVINE are at present in residence. Thank YOU, FATHER and MOTHER DIVINE.
"Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth..." St.John 16:13
Civilizations have risen in great wealth, knowledge and power and then waned for lack of a universal and righteous foundation. But individuals have been inspired with a nobler vision, and though it may have taken centuries, this spirit of enlightenment which they had, gradually infiltrated the minds of people in general and took form in their lives.
Religious and secular history tell of man's restless search for personal satisfaction and dominion on one hand, and of the inexorable working of the Law of the Spirit of Life on the other to bring man back into union with GOD.
We read in the Bible of how man, being created in the image and likeness of GOD, with dominion over the lower forms of creation, fell from his perfect state. This egotistic mind has been handed down from generation to generation. Yet, within man, though mostly lying dormant, the seed of perfection by which he was created, the unity of Spirit, Body and Mind, which is CHRIST or GOD, is waiting to be resurrected..
The history of man has been uphill-downhill. Peaceful and prosperous when he has walked close to GOD. Under tyranny and depression when he has failed to do so.
Of many noble visions men have had, one took form that was to eventually lead a small band of oppressed people to a new world. Unrest and desperation and plagued freedom- loving people during the domination and persecution of church and government in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Again men caught hold of GOD in their extremity; a leader with a new religious thought here and there separate from the established church gathered followers. Among these was a group of people wanting release from the traditions of the church so much that they fled their homeland in search of freedom and peace.
The young nation that subsequently developed in America marks a milestone in the history of man. Not because of the ability or knowledge or wealth or power of the Founding Fathers, but because they loved GOD and were moving in HIS Will.
Here, in the New World, an amalgamation of all nations, tongues and people declared the right of every man to life, liberty and the reality of happiness. Here, the fulfillment of the dreams of philosophers among the ancients, of all men from ages back who lived close to GOD, were realized. The institution of the Law of the Spirit of Life which came through Jesus Christ, was molded into a framework for government by the people, for the people and through the people.
Under such a democratic form of government, GOD's Spirit was free to govern by love rather than by force. Man could follow his inner urge and bring the CHRIST to fruition.
But as the conglomerated states welded themselves into a nation and it grew and expanded, another form of tyranny began to creep in and the issue of slavery brought about civil war.
Again freedom won out and the slaves were emancipated though their plight under freedom was in many instances worse than in the days of slavery. Discriminated against on every hand, despised, spat upon, kicked and beaten, yes, lynched at the tree, these new citizens of "the land of the free," lacking even rudimentary education, lived under economic distress of the worst kind.
The situation not only became a hindrance to America's own development, but a festering sore within her inmost parts.
While the sore festered and a segment of the populace was terrorized by such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan and by frequent lynchings not brought to justice because the arms of the law itself were perpetrators, America still prospered, pretending not to see or not even caring about the plight of some of its citizens.
A new type of aristocracy arose. The barons of industry, made wealthy as the young country grew and produced during the Industrial Revolution expanding its railroads across the wilderness and its shipping around the world to accommodate the bulging market, took advantage of the working and the underprivileged man.
The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries tell the story of America's adventures in business, profession, labor and trade; in government, social habits and customs; in international affairs and war. It tells of the rise in power of the trade unions, called into being by the lack of just payment of the laborer for his work.
As the horizons of the land of opportunity narrowed, so did the hopes and fortunes of the aristocracy. The unrighteousness of the nation's economy finally caused the country to become bogged down in financial distress.
Rumors of the failure of the economy caused people to rush to the banks to withdraw their life's earnings only to find that the banks had closed before they could get to them.
Newspapers daily blazed the news of bankers and industrial tycoons jumping to their death from hotel windows or found slumped over their desks dead of self-inflicted wounds. They had lost the courage and stamina of their sturdy forefathers who faced possible death in an unknown wilderness for the right to be free.
But again it was the masses who suffered most. Unemployment gnawed the core of the nation. People who could not be accommodated on bread lines or by soup kitchens set up for the hungry, ate from garbage cans to live. Families were dispossessed, their belongings set out on the street because of long overdue payments on rent. Starvation stalked city streets.
With the situation came unsanitary conditions in crowded city tenements and disease followed.
The conditions people had inflicted morally upon their dark-skinned brothers had fallen upon them and still their own pledge of allegiance to a country guaranteeing "one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all" was unheeded.
Telephone and radio had begun to make communication between people and nations instant. Travel by car and airplane reduced journeys of weeks or months to a few hours or days. In civilized countries education had become almost universal, and machines were increasingly used for laborious work. Wonderful as were these scientific advances of civilization, increasingly devastating was the effect of continuous warfare culminating in World War I. From the aftermath of suffering and confusion arose the dictatorships of Hitler and Mussolini, which finally were to trigger World War II.
Old values were changed. Superstitious religious beliefs of many were inadequate to provide the faith and inspiration needed in a changing world. Endorsement by the church of a system which allowed the rich to oppress the poor, caused Communism to be attractive to people who sought equality and to whom Christianity had not put a roof over their heads or food in their mouths.
At this time of physical as well as mental and spiritual distress in this country and abroad, there was a seeking for Divine Reality. The philosophies of men were inadequate to cope with humanity's problems. Man had reached his extremity.
The people and the world were at a place where nothing short of GOD could help and lift them. Then came the electrifying words,"GOD is here!"
And in our day, and in our time, they found HIM teaching and preaching in the little fishing village of Sayville, Long Island, New York.
One writer tells the story briefly in this way:
"To those who were spiritually inclined yet living in the world of materialism, the stories of miraculous healings of Biblical days, and the accounts of how even the passing shadow of some of the prophets and disciples was a healing balm to those on whom it fell, such stories stirred the very souls of some. Their hearts yearned for the faith that was once delivered to the saints that it might again act as a panacea for man's inhumanity to man.
"Years followed years and then at last over the nations like wild fire there swept a rumor, a whisper, mysterious, miraculous; no one knew from where, none could say definitely, but the story flew from lip to lip that the ONE was come, the ONE for WHOM humanity had prayed was come! In extremiation, with a fervent prayer that it might be so, men sought out the source of this mysterious Name, FATHER DIVINE; sought HIM and found HIM, at last.
"No man need tell you, HIS Works speak for themselves, and HIS Words tell their own story. Here is Truth in all its purity. Here is the beauty of Holiness! Here is the Panacea for all ills!"
The greater the disease, FATHER DIVINE says, the greater the need for a strong cure and America and the world was diseased from the inside out with racial injustice, economic depravity and the forsaking of the love for GOD for love of self.
Man's time was clearly out and in his extremity he was at last ready to give GOD an opportunity.
"In all of their afflictions, he was afflicted"
as it was said of Jesus.
Tasting of the undercover savagery of the brutes of humanity, FATHER DIVINE went south, subjecting HIMSELF to thirty-two lynch mobs at a time when no one was caring about the suffering of the economically and socially enslaved people there. No one was marching or demonstrating for civil rights; there was no one to publicize the heinous crimes done by lynch mobbers.
It was FATHER DIVINE Who cared.
'. . . he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities";
as it is written,
'. because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.'
Coming through with Love untouched when the flame of race hatred was raging, HE proved the reality of the Gospel of CHRIST as it was known by the people but not lived, and erased this sin against humanity so completely that today lynching is not even heard of.
By Personal demonstration FATHER DIVINE shows that the CHRIST Life can be lived and can satisfy every good desire. Without purse or scrip HE proves for all time that the Gospel can be preached without taking collections, love offerings and the like and that,
'The Spirit of the Consciousness of the Presence of GOD is the source of all supply.'
Although it was HIS desire to hide HIMSELF as a Person that humanity might get the Principle, the Law of the Spirit of Life, without looking to an individual, the masses found their way to HIM, for only HE could give soul's satisfaction.
Daily the family of believers, drawn from all walks of life and racial abstractions gathered around the abundant banquet table to fellowship with the Living CHRIST. Never had such Words of wisdom and power from the Infinite One fallen on the ears of humanity.
For the privilege of hearing these Words and being in the Actual Presence of GOD, hundreds of thousands of people were attracted from far and near. Some came for physical or economic healing, but there were many who came from a corrupt world hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Not only was FATHER DIVINE teaching righteousness, but HE was living the right-use-ness of every thought, every emotion, every word and deed. HE had it to give in fullest measure. By the accurateness of the Life of CHRIST exemplified by HIM, others were impelled to follow in HIS footsteps on the same foundation.
As the people flocked to HIM, HE spoke out in the power of HIS Holy Spirit as HE had been doing all along, against the lawless lynchings of the South, against the persecution of the Jews in Germany, against tyranny everywhere. The Great Unifier alone had the power to unify those of different abstractions who came into HIS Presence. All who sat at HIS Table of abundance in the midst of scarcity brought on by the Depression, were served exactly the same. For the hungry and under-privileged who came from the streets of Harlem and like places, for the aristocracy who came from around the world, the treatment was the same.
Fearlessly FATHER DIVINE taught and lived the pure CHRIST Life, of the forsaking of family, friends and country, even the nature inherited and pre-inherited within; though never, even by slightest words, did HE coerce anyone. Those who volitionally wished to come out of a mortal life had the opportunity to live where they could serve GOD wholeheartedly by the moving of the Holy, unadulterated Spirit within.
Then HE, Who had refrained from the natural means of communication that HIS Spirit alone might be conveyed to the world, permitted such to be and HE condescended to respond where necessary to the voluminous mail reaching HIM from all parts of the world. It was at this time that FATHER gave HIS Messages to the world absolutely gratis as a free gift to mankind.
The Words flowed from HIS Lips in a never-ending stream. Words of Life and Spirit and Love.
They were so numerous that the small staff who had voluntarily set about to transcribe them could not keep up with their transcriptions nor could the press publish them all and many of these wonderful Words have been buried until this very day. Now, a larger staff is busy getting them out to the press so the world can benefit.
In the feature series presented in The NEW DAY, jottings from the early notebooks
of one transcriber will be published for the enjoyment and enlightenment of
some and as foundation stones toward a perfect world for others.
Sayville Crowds
The above headline is from Island News, described in its masthead as "Suffolk's Pictorial Newsmagazine." Printed in the October 1, 1931 issue.
The article gives an outsider's first impression of Sayville.
Here, at 72 Macon Street, FATHER DIVINE, residing with MOTHER DIVINE and members
of HIS staff, have been carrying on HIS Work of peace and brotherhood since
1919 when HE withdrew from HIS Work in New York City.
For many months the people of Sayville have been mystified, and many of them have been annoyed by the presence of a religious curiosity in the form of a Teacher, or Healer. FATHER DIVINE has drawn large crowds to HIS home where they are taught a religion consisting mostly of simple instruction of good manners and kindness. The Teacher claims to heal many people of their afflictions. ISLAND NEWS will not comment upon this claim further than to say that such claims frequently flourish upon rumor rather than upon fact. Nevertheless, it is true that FATHER DIVINE has set up a pretentious and costly establishment, which is being operated upon a lavish scale, and all who go there are fed and treated well. The place has attracted such crowds that legal action has been instituted against FATHER DIVINE by Sayville residents on the grounds that HE is maintaining a public nuisance. Last Sunday ISLAND NEWS sent a reporter to the house. The following is his story:
Sunday, Sept. 27 -- A beautiful day, the sun shining brightly and your correspondent arrived in Sayville to find two police officers checking up on cars driven by Afro-American people. We were informed by these officials that they had already seized six cars for which the drivers had no license. These cars were from New York and other cities, including one from Georgia. I asked why they were only checking up on those driven by Afro-Americans. They informed me that these people were being drawn to Sayville by a Magic Healer of whom they were Followers. I inquired where this Person with such powers could be found and was promptly directed to turn the first street to my right, Macon Street, and I would need no further directions. This street was a very nice residential section, and true to the officer's word, I came upon the home of Sayville's "Magic Healer."
Here I found a very large, green, shingled house with a red roof. Six of Sayville's police officers were directing traffic and keeping the people off the sidewalk so that the pedestrians might pass. Upon entering the grounds I passed beneath a sign which read as follows:
"Be on one accord
Drive in slowly
Notice -- Smoking --Intoxicating Liquors
Profane Language--Strictly Prohibited.
Inside these grounds I found hundreds of people, and before long came in contact with a man who seemed to have some authority about the place. I was informed that he was a councilor. I approached this councilor, told him who I was and that I would like to get a story. He immediately informed me that what I would get there was "the Truth" that that was their teaching--"the Truth." He pointed out people who had come from all over even as far as Missouri to get this "Truth."
He told me of the people who had come there on crutches and left dancing, of others who had come blind but when they went they could see; still others who had come there mentally blind and when they left they could see the Light. He invited me into the dining room where I might dine, meet and talk with the FATHER. This I had not expected but promptly accepted.
The interior of this house, referred to as the Temple, was very nicely decorated in a manner in which you would expect to find the home of any individual of good financial standing. The dining room had a table of horseshoe fashion at the head of which sat the Person whom I was eager to meet. I was ushered to the head of the table and given a seat beside this Mighty little Person. HE was not dressed in garments as one might expect of the leader of a religious movement; but HE was attired in a plain suit of clothes of good quality the same as worn by the average business man.
Around the table were fifty-three people. Of this number, twenty-two were light and of these twenty-one were women.
On the table was food of the best quality that money can buy. There were roasts of meat and fowl and at a glance one could tell they were prepared by someone with a vast experience. My eyes were taken up with the large silver consoles heaped with the choicest of fruits that you find only in the high grade markets. In front of FATHER DIVINE were ten or twelve coffee percolators, all the coffee being poured by HIM and served by waitresses.
I found it quite hard to get in conversation with FATHER. No one up to this point would give me their name and I expected to be refused here but I asked and to my surprise HE told me HIS Name was M. J. DIVINE. I asked HIM how many people HE fed in a day. HE promptly replied, "We feed as many as come. We serve from early morning until midnight." I asked HIM what HE charged and HE said, "We charge nothing. Anyone, man, woman or child, regardless of race, color or creed, can come here naked and we will clothe them, hungry and we will feed them."
After the meal, we adjourned to the garden where I asked for a picture. This HE refused as HE said HE did not want publicity, that HE did not believe in advertising, that all the people there had come through the advice of others whom HE had helped.
I would estimate that there were at least three thousand visited there as they were coming and going all the time. I counted eight buses parked in the different places near by. In the garden I also met a young Caucasian girl who informed me that she had come there insane, that FATHER DIVINE had given her new life, that she had been cured and as she smiled she said, "It's wonderful." I asked her name which she did not give. I was then introduced to a young Caucasian man, Mr. Mathews, who has just returned from London and Paris where he has been spreading FATHER DIVINE'S Teaching. FATHER DIVINE informed me that there is a man in Germany now preaching HIS Teachings.
FATHER DIVINE'S councilor informed me that the FATHER never sleeps. HE has hundreds of letters every day which HE answers after they stop serving at midnight and it is probably five or six o'clock in the morning before HE finishes. Then HE takes a walk and starts the same routine again.
A little woman shook hands with HIM and HE remarked, "I know by your grip that you think you will be healed because you touched ME but this is not so. MY handclasp is that of companionship and so do not think that by shaking hands with ME you can be healed."
I thought I would check up on HIM in Sayville, and did. It appears that HE has no banking account. The merchants say HE pays HIS bills in cash and always appears to have plenty of it.
One decorator told me he had assisted in painting and redecorating the house where FATHER DIVINE lives. His boss came up when the job was finished and the Leader asked what the bill was. It was $480.
"That is fine," FATHER said. "It is a good job and I AM very well pleased." Then HE reached into HIS pocket, pulled out a roll of bills, and paid the $480 in cash.
There are no religious relics or altars in the house. It is furnished similar to any other well-to-do middle class home. But the food is apparently the best that money can buy. I ate a fine meal and I know whereof I speak. There are large roasts, small lamb toasts, chicken, duck, the finest of vegetables and delicious fruits. I am certain the grapes were grown in a hothouse, or else highly cultivated.
One of the Sayville police officers told me that county authorities some months ago went into New York City and hired an Afro-American girl who worked for the city police to come out here as a "plant." Dressed shabbily, the girl went to FATHER DIVINE'S house and applied for help. She was given good clothes, was well fed and was treated hospitably. She could find nothing illegal, and so reported to authorities.
Upon inquiring in Sayville I found that FATHER has been there about twelve years and recently the neighbors began to complain and try to do something about it. The case will come up in Riverhead during the October term of court, the charge being a public nuisance. The only mystery that I could find about the place, and that seems to be the same that is troubling Sayville, is "Where does HE get HIS money?" Oh, yes, I asked HIM and HE promptly replied that the Almighty takes care of that.
This is to certify that I have known Rev. FATHER DIVINE for the past twenty years and was a Justice of the Peace for most of this time and at his home in sayville, L. I., he has taken in families and people and cared for them. I knew him not to take any fee or money for his services. He was a respectable citizen and did good in this community. I am now president of the Oystermen's Bank and Trust Co.
Yours,
Daniel d. White
(From: The Spoken Word, June 22, 1937,page 18)
Eugene Del Mar Attorney and Counselor
51 Macon Street, Sayville, L. I., N. Y.
November 23rd, 1931
To Whom It May Concern:
My name having been printed in the New York Times as a witness in the proceedings at Sayville, Long Island, in connection with "FATHER DIVINE," I take this opportunity to give my reasons for being at Sayville, especially as what I found here is a matter of current public interest.
For over thirty years I have been before the public as author, lecturer, teacher and organizer in what has been designated variously as Mental Science, New Thought, Psychology, Spiritual Science, etc.; and I have been in fairly intimate association with hundreds of other teachers who were similarly disposed. My record will be found in most of such general books of reference as "Who's Who in America," and from time to time I have been connected with many of the best schools that have functioned or now operate along these lines. I was attracted here to study the life and teachings of one whom I was advised to be a great teacher and healer, besides being gifted with unusual powers.
In the light of this background, I have listened for a full month to the teachings of FATHER DIVINE. These are all given at his free meals, so that eating and teaching go together. I now recognize in FATHER DIVINE one whose love, charity, sympathy and other spiritual attributes are manifested to an extreme degree in a transparent purity of life; and to whose wisdom and understanding of spiritual truth I bow my head with reverence. In the words of another epoch:
'I find no fault in this man.'
All that I have seen, felt and ascertained regarding the life and teachings of FATHER DIVINE have illumined my understanding beyond anything I have heretofore experienced. His teachings are both extremely simple and deeply profound. They inculcate the practice of the Christ Life "as recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John," and seemingly he lives this life in its fullness. He expounds the teachings of Jesus as contrasted with those of Paul. This Christ Life he depicts as one of extreme purity and universal love. He cites the New Testament in support of his teaching that the results of living this life are peace of mind and health of body, together with all of the other beautiful possibilities of life. His teaching is that of essential Unity and Oneness; that body, mind and soul are One; and that when the Christ Life is lived to its fullness, the body is spiritualized so that it partakes of the Spirit of God, and is no longer subject to death.
The life so depicted certainly offers a striking contrast to the average life of humanity, and its practicality may not be understood by the vast majority of mankind. Only in the slightest degree, if any, do the teachings of FATHER DIVINE account for the antagonism to him; for those who oppose him know little or nothing of his teachings. The opposition is based on racial color prejudice, intensified by annoyance to the neighbors incident to the sounds of worship, and by alleged loss of village property values. Many of his enemies are friendly to him personally, for he expresses every admirable quality and is always kind and considerate. In regard to his appearance, he explains that it is in order that the inherent beauty of the "impersonal life" may be detected beneath an unattractive exterior. But his followers find in him equal beauty of character and countenance.
To many of his followers, FATHER DIVINE'S unfailing expressions and activities of love and sympathy, his lofty teachings and purity of life, and the unusual powers with which he seems to be endowed, impel them to place him a category superior to ordinary mortality, and they recognize in him the expected Messiah. Many address him as "God," "Jesus Christ," and in other terms of Divinity. But he states frequently that what he does all others can do when they think and live as he does and have the same consciousness.
Some of his familiar biblical quotations are: "I and the Father are One," "The Father is in me and I am in the Father," and "Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God?" Some of his own familiar sayings are "God is here and there and everywhere," "The Christ in you and the Christ in me will make you what you ought to be," and "The abundance of the fullness of the consciousness of Good; no space is vacant of the fullness thereof." A few of the frequent exclamations are: "Peace, FATHER!," "Thank you, FATHER!" and "It is wonderful."
Many have been attracted to FATHER DIVINE out of curiosity and the fact that he feeds freely and "sumptuously" from say 400 to 800 or more people each day. He accepts no money from any one, has no bank account, and pays cash for all purchases. His answer to all inquiries as to the source of his financial supply is: "The spirit of the consciousness of the presence of God is the source of all supply, and will satisfy every good desire." Among the more intelligent and critical of his guests are those who claim to have actually seen him multiply the food before their very eyes!
Many have come here afflicted with various physical disorders and gone away healed, and some of these have returned again and again to testify to the fact. But FATHER DIVINE constantly advises that the permanence of healing is dependent upon the continued purity of life. He does not claim that personally he heals anyone, or that it is necessary to contact him personally for this purpose. He states that it is "your faith" that heals you, and that you can contact him mentally and spiritually at any distance with the same result. Many testify that they have called upon his name from a distance and have been healed--sometimes instantaneously!
Highly educated scholars have been here who have accorded to FATHER DIVINE unique and exceptional attributes; but no one has as yet solved the mystery underlying his personality, wisdom, supply and power. Now that the press and radio have spread the news of his activities near and far, FATHER DIVINE has become a world figure, whose presence and significance can no longer be ignored. It seems to be the mission and hidden purpose of all prosecutions and persecutions to bring into the light of public interest that which otherwise might remain in the twilight of comparative indifference.
/s/ Eugene Del Mar
"The Sayville Home
is now designated an
Historic Landmark
By The Township of Islip ,
Suffolk County,
Long Island, New York
1979 A. D., 34 F. D."
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