Unity Mission Church and Home, Inc. Garage
(FATHER DIVINE relates two parables for our consideration, 'The Good Saint Peter' and 'The Story of the Kobold!')
PEACE, EVERYONE: Good Health, Good Will, Good Appetite; Good Manners, Good Behavior, All Success and All Prosperity; Life, Liberty and the Reality of Happiness! These and all other Blessings, I believe you all believe I AM freely giving for it is written,
'It is more blessed to give than to receive!'
A little while ago I thought of a story I have quite often told. It is very familiar to the majority of you all:
'Once when the good Saint Peter
Lived in the world below,
He walked about his preaching,
Just as he did, you know.
He came to the door of a cottage
In traveling around the earth,
Where a little woman was baking cakes
In the ashes on the hearth.
And being faint with fasting
For the day was almost done,
He asked her from her store of cakes
To give him a single one.
Therefore, she kneaded another
But still a smaller one,
But it looked when she turned it over
As large as the first she had done.
So she took a tiny scrap of dough,
And rolled and rolled it flat,
And baked it thin as a wafer,
But she would not part with that.
She said, 'My cakes do seem so small
When I eat of them myself,
They are yet too large to give away!'
So she put it upon the shelf.
The good Saint Peter grew angry
For he was hungry and faint,
And was sure such a woman
Was enough to try a saint!
So he said, 'You shall build as the birds do,
By getting your scanty food,
By boring and boring and boring
All day in the hard dry wood!'
Up she went through the chimney,
Never speaking a word,
And out of the top flew a woodpecker,
For she was changed to a bird!'
I need not go further, but the thought is very pronounced, that as I arise and give you MY Salutation I AM endeavoring to give you something that is constructive and advantageous. Aren't you glad! I endeavor to take the lesson continually of the woodpecker!
In the conclusion of the story it goes:
'This is the lesson she teaches,
Live not for yourself alone' --
I will leave the other for you to read between the lines!
But it is a thought very pronounced and very significant to realize how you should live; how you should deny yourself and recognize the Ever Presence of GOD!
The last speaker said a little while ago that I came to teach you all, segregation is sin; discrimination is sin. But selfishness is also sin! It is a wonderful thought!
You have heard the story over and over again here, 'We shall have a Righteous Government and we shall have the same rights -- not only equal but the same!' You can see that I AM making up this Government for it is upon MY Shoulders! Aren't you glad! The foundation was laid documentally by the Declaration of Independence and by the Constitution and its Amendments; but we are drawing the Government together in action according to the Declaration of Independence and according to the Constitution and its Amendments and we shall express a citizenry second to none, for we shall bring all nations of the earth together and all languages and tongues and people, and all religions, as I have enveloped them, we shall manifest them: Americanism, Christianity, Democracy, Judaism and all of the spirits and the meaning of the Just Ones as synonymous, and shall unite all nations of the earth just as we have you here as a sample and as an example!
I did not arise to preach at this instance for I prefer hearing others speak. As I have declared,
'I will preach CHRIST in Words but more so in Deeds and in Actions, and I will put MY Spirit in the people and cause them to walk in MY Statutes!'
You have heard the often rehearsed phrase used here in America,
'Actions speak louder than words!'
Let us let our actions tell more explicitly of ourselves than what we try to tell you with the words of our mouth!
A good many of you desire to let your words be many and your deeds be few; but it may be better to let your words be few and your deeds be many! When you speak, speak in the actuated words of expression! Speak in actions and in deeds! And then again, there is another way you can speak: in love and devotion, in the actuated words of expression, as well as in deeds and in actions!
For this cause we do rejoice and we are happy to say, the woodpecker may teach a good many people a lesson! The story goes:
'He was hungry and faint,
And he was sure such a woman
Was enough to try a saint!So he said, 'You shall build as the birds do,
By getting your scantly food,
By boring and boring all day
In the hard dry wood!'
The reason MY true followers are successful and prosperous economically I mean, financially and otherwise it is because it is written:
'He that puts his trust in GOD shall never be confounded!'
Now GOD is not confined or bound to a person, and yet GOD is a Person! Aren't you glad! But as you put your trust in GOD supernaturally, you recognize HIS Omnipresence, and under HIS wing you are protected universally, wheresoever you may be! Aren't you glad!
Then I say, live in this Recognition! Do not be as it was with the woman that changed, as she was changed to a bird, neither be as the shepherd when he thought he had come into possession of great wealth!
He had passed over the mountainside hundreds of times, it has been said, but at last one day he was driving his sheep in, and he saw a beautiful flower, and he stooped and plucked that flower.
When he plucked the flower the mountainside opened up, the story goes, as though it was a Hudson terminal; and he walked down in there and saw a peculiar-looking little man sitting behind a table.
But he saw so many more beautiful things than that of the peculiar-looking man! The man said,Take all you want but don't forget the best!'
story goes,He filled his pockets and filled his shepherd bag. The little peculiar-looking man -- the kobold he was called -- said:
'Get all you want but don't forget the best!'
He filled his shepherd bag and picked the very largest diamond he could find! The old kobold said, 'Get all you want, but don't forget the BEST!'
At last he told him, 'Get all you want!' -- he thought he (the kobold) meant to carry something else! He tried to find the very largest diamond he could get! -- even started out with it in his mouth, the story goes. But it said the little, old, ugly-looking man said,
'Get all you want but don't forget the best!'
And he had laid the keyflower on the table -- and he received so many blessings of riches and wealth until he forgot the best, which was the keyflower!
He got to the door; the last word he heard the little old cave man say,'Get all you want but don't forget the best!'
It was the last warning to him, for he (the kobold) knew what would happen to him! But he could carry no more, therefore, he went on his way, thinking to himself-- no doubt, rejoicing -- and as soon as he got out of the underground treasure, All he had turned to leaves and pebbles -- all because he had forgotten the best!
So, get all you want but don't forget the best! You had better deny yourself!
New Day: November 22, 1947 A.D.F.D. Pg 3
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