The Auditorium of
Unity Mission Church, Philadelphia, PA
Truly are the nations of the earth blessed today to have with them in Bodily Form, GOD Almighty, FATHER DIVINE, One Who is near to comfort and cheer just when you need HIM most! In these perilous times, as mentioned in the Scripture, when nation shall rise against nation and sword against sword, when mankind has lost hope in everything, when he has reached his extremity, GOD then has an opportunity to step in as the Wayshower and lead you on to Victory if you will but accept of HIM.
In this profound Sermon herein transcribed for your edification, you will see that GOD Almighty in His Holy Body, has paid it all, for it is written of HIM, and we that know HIM and love HIM can verify the same:
'Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of GOD, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.' (Isaiah 53:4,5)
Almighty GOD, we humbly thank THEE!
(The foregoing statements are those of the transcriber, and the following is FATHER DIVINE'S Sermon with FATHER speaking as follows:)
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 to you I AM freely giving if you will but accept of them! The aforesaid statements of the Attributes of GOD to the children of men I AM freely giving to them without money and without price.
As a Minister of the Gospel as though being One among them, I have not taken up a collection! I have not done any soliciting nor begging, but so freely to the children of men I have given Good Health, Good Will, a Good Appetite, Good Manners and Good Behavior. I have given them All Success and All Prosperity! I have given them Life, Liberty and the Reality of Happiness in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa!
Then I say, it is a privilege to live in such a conviction and such a recognition, realizing GOD'S Actual Presence as no longer being a supposition but as being the very Essence and Life Substance of all Creation!
I was just thinking about, so many people think we are here for the dollars and cents and some have had the audacity to say, 'FATHER DIVINE takes all of your money.' But oh, how glorious it is to realize, I have taken all of your infirmities! I have taken all of your sickness and affliction without the cost of a penny! Aren't you glad? ('So glad, Almighty GOD!' responded the Assembly.) I have established your going in the land of the living and I have made the way successful before you and prosperous so that I, as the poorest among men, AM making many rich!
Then I say, it is a privilege to be here and it is a privilege rare, something unique, such as the majority of you have never seen, for such banquets as we serve for the sustenance of your bodies and for the benefit of your physical existence to solve your economic problem and to give you health and vigor; no man has ever set such banquet tables as these! Aren't you glad? ('Yes, LORD! So glad!' shouted the enthusiastic assembly.)
Then I say, it is something to praise GOD for! But such as the last speaker mentioned of such healings here in this country, such as some of those far away mentioned tonight over the wire recording and such as some mentioned here from far away Australia by bringing the message verbatim orally. Aren't you glad? ('So glad, LORD!' came the happy shout again.) How I AM, by the Spirit of My Presence and the Presence of My Spirit, healing the people of sickness, affliction and disease; healing them from even hereditation, from prenataled influences that are detrimental and destructive. Aren't you glad? ('Oh, so glad, LORD!' again shouted the eager assembly.) But that is not all. As afore said, think of making the way possible for you, My fellow citizens, hearers and friends, to live in splendor with a-full and a-plenty and to spare! In the time of the extreme emergencies, in the time of panics, famines and depressions I have proven to you and the world conclusively, GOD in the midst of you is the great REPRODUCER, One Who produces and reproduces over and over again, until you can say in reality:
This is not just a motto to be rehearsed or stressed, but it is your conscious conviction and realization, for you can plainly see, such abundance on the material plane for the sustenance of your bodies and for your comfort and for your convenience, you have never seen! Aren't you glad? ('So glad!' came the happy shout.)
Therefore I say, rejoice in the LORD always, and again I say, Rejoice! Let your moderation be made known to all men, the LORD is at hand! Then it is something to praise GOD for, when you can look about yourselves and see the very Spirit incarnated and reproduced and re-personified the very Same Spirit that was in the Body called Jesus, and others who apparently died and liveth now once and forever! You have something to praise GOD for!
But if you just take it economically and consider, I have solved your economic problems! I have solved your social problems! I have solved your intellectual problems! I have solved your political problems! I have solved your racial problems! I have adjusted matters satisfactorily for you! Then I say, rejoice and be glad for your salvation has truly come!
Another thought I would like to say: if you could find such a Banquet Table with the abundance of the fullness of the Consciousness of Good and find no space of the fullness thereof, such as these over which I preside, you would be obliged to pay from five dollars per plate to a hundred dollars a plate! But think of you having the privilege to come in these auditoriums and dining rooms over which I preside and can partake of some of all of the abundance of the fullness and are not obliged to pay a hundred dollars a plate! Not required to pay a hundred dollars a plate! But though you should or would be required to do so, if you were in a place that was seeking graft and greed and trying to get something for nothing, if we were trying to fleece the people, you would be obliged and required to pay anywhere from five dollars a plate up to a hundred dollars a plate and more; but we are not trying to do that!
And aside from all of the material food, think of having the Gospel preached to you and to the absolutely poor, the destitute; having it preached to the poor as well as the rich without money and without price, and all our churches and representatives require of you not a donation for the church services, not a donation for the lights, not a donation for the beauty, not a donation for the sermon and songs of praise and inspirations and compositions second to none, but only require of you a donation for your meals, for your sleeping accommodation and for your comfort and for your convenience in being conveyed from place to place with the church cars. That is all they ask of you to donate for! Not for the Gospel being preached, but for the material things you receive as for the sustenance of your bodies, for your comfort and for your convenience.
Just think of it! Therefore I say, you should rejoice and be glad. You can come in any of these places and have the abundance of the fullness of every good and desirable food for the sustenance of your bodies, for your comfort and for your convenience and are only required to donate for the food; and if you live in the hotels and other places of the Peace Mission Movement, you are only requested and required and obliged to pay about fifty percent or less than what you would be obliged to pay elsewhere! Now isn't that a blessing?
Then I say, everyone should willingly and voluntarily and gladly and happily donate for the food, for the meals and for the comfort and the convenience of the food and the like and realize, you are not giving anything for the Gospel we preach! We are not taking up collections! I have never taken up a collection! I AM not anticipating taking up a collection. I do not do any soliciting or begging, but those of the following and members of the churches that supply you with the abundance of the fullness of food, of comfort and convenience, of automobiles and other means of transportation to convey you to your respective places, they DO expect you to willingly donate for those things the same as you would be required in public places.
But think of coming to the different places and even such as having the privilege to come into the concerts, no admission fee to any of the demonstrations. All of our service is given free, such as our demonstrations and concerts as given; but for the food you eat, we do respectively request a donation to the amount you would be obliged to donate for the same food elsewhere.
The trustees requested ME to make that announcement because at times some say they are invited, they are guests, they should not donate anything for the food they eat or should not donate anything for the sleeping accommodations in first-rate hotels and other comfortable first-rate places where they would be obliged to pay from two dollars and a half and up per day for such accommodations. Some of them would like to say, 'Well, we are guests; we have been invited. I have been invited'; and do not desire to donate even such as a nickel fee or donation of what they would be required and obliged to pay in other public places.
Such an act is an act of dishonesty! When you do such as that you are robbing yourself! You are not robbing anyone else. A person that goes around soliciting and begging, he is making himself a beggar and the ones of whom he is begging, he is making them richer! I have declared:
'You shall reap just what you sow!'
If you sow the seeds of poverty, lacks, wants and limitations, you shall reap the fruit of the same! So many people say, 'Where does FATHER DIVINE get so much money from?' I did not say I had any money! 'Well, how do YOU do it?' I do it because I do not go around begging and stealing and cause MYSELF to be in lacks and wants and limitations; but I stress, emphasize and advocate the abundance of the fullness, and the abundance of the fullness I reproduce automatically because of My Consciousness in which I AM functioning! See the Mystery?
Some are going around begging and talking about, 'Times are hard', and they can hardly make ends meet! They will not make ends meet because they are sowing the seeds of poverty and they must reap the fruit of the same. Trying to impress others with the thought that they are in lacks, wants and limitations, at times, when they are not in lacks, wants and limitations; but if they continue to preach it, first thing you know, they are in lacks, wants and limitations!
I continue to preach the Abundance of the fullness of the consciousness of good and declare to you, no space is vacant of the fullness thereof! By so doing, I cannot find room to receive the blessings! It is written Scripturally, GOD said:
'Try ME and see if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out such a blessing there will not be room to receive it.'
Can you not see the mystery? The average person does not know how to try GOD. They think trying GOD would be going around saying they are in lacks, wants and limitations, but vice-versalate such an expression; in other words, change your gears of thinking and of action and go to the extreme reverse expression and you will find the Abundance of the fullness of the consciousness of good, no space will be vacant of the fullness thereof.
I know you have heard in your churches your pastor or someone said at times, it is written:
'He that sows sparingly shall reap sparingly and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully.'
In other words: 'Shall reap abundance.' Aren't you glad? ('So glad!' echoed the multitude.)
'The Abundance of the fullness of the consciousness of good, no space is vacant of the fullness thereof!'
This is not just a composition-ated motto for the music thereof, nor for the rhythm, but it is a declaration because of My Personal experiences! Aren't you glad? ('So glad, GOD Almighty! It's Wonderful.' came the happy shout.) Now vision the abundance of the fullness and vision success and prosperity, for the thing you vividly visualize you tend to materialize. Aren't you glad? ('So glad, so glad!' shouted the assembly.)
For this cause we are rejoicing to say once again: SALVATION IS FREE! And in all of our churches we do not receive donations or love offerings or remuneration from anyone saving those of the immediate members of that particular church; I mean the trustees or members. The church itself does not receive donations or love offerings or remuneration or gifts from anyone saving those of the members of that immediate church. You do not have to be a member of the church to be a follower of Mine. You do not have to be a member of any of our churches to live soberly, righteously and Godly according to My Teaching, but if for any cause you have designated any of the churches, organized and incorporated churches, as the church of your choice, you are welcome to be a member of those churches by living exactly according to My Teaching, according to our Church Discipline, By-Laws and Constitution. You are not required, neither are you obliged to donate anything to the church if you belong to the church. All you are required to do is to pay your way and be independent. Donate for the material things you receive and not for the church nor for the spiritual blessings you receive. See the mystery?
As you heard the brother say a little while ago, how he was healed practically instantaneously and restored to strength so that he could walk; yet not one of My true followers has accepted a dime from him for being healed and blessed of ME! I do not expect a penny! Thousands and thousands are healed from all sorts of ailments and complaints and yet we do not expect a penny for any of the blessings they receive from a spiritual point of view, for the blessings come by the Spirit automatically and it is not anything I have physically done, neither is it anything that I Personally do. See the mystery? It is written in the Scripture:
'It is not by power nor by might, but by My Spirit, says the LORD GOD of Hosts.'
Therefore, My Spirit does it wheresoever you may be found. It is My Spirit of which the Scripture was speaking when it said in the Prophetic Age:
'It is not by power nor by might, but by My Spirit, says the LORD GOD of Hosts.'
GOD'S SPIRIT WILL DO IT! It was My Spirit of which it was speaking, predicting and declaring IT would do it, and not by the power of man!
But as I afore said, just what you would be obliged to pay for food and shelter wheresoever you may be, the material comfort and convenience for the sustenance of your body, the same is required of you and respectively required without criticism, without condemnation and without any sense of embarrassment, for those things are supplied by those who furnish the things that life demands, for your comfort and for your convenience and for the sustenance of your bodies.
Therefore, anyone and everyone, all are respectfully required to and expected to donate for the food they eat and for the places in which they sleep; for the comfort and convenience of the transportation they have at their service when it is given by the church. The church and church members do expect you to donate for such accommodations of which you would be obliged to pay heavily for it, if you were obliged to hire such accommodations.
Take these thoughts to consideration. I mention it and stress it because it has been at times, visiting guests at times I mean even groups would come and dine at this table and other tables of the Peace Mission Movement, as we have many right here in the city, such banquets we have that are second to none, as afore explained, and yet they would get up and walk out, a good many of them, and say, 'We are invited guests', or 'We are strangers', or 'We are guests.' Because you are strangers, it doesn't say that you are not expected to and required to pay for your meals and pay for your sleeping accommodation and pay for your comfort and convenience for your respective transportation. If not pay for them, you are expected to donate for them! I thank you.
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