"As the Bridegroom Rejoiceth over the Bride So Shall Thy GOD Rejoice Over Thee"
-- Is. 62:5

"Lift up a Standard for the People."

Our FATHER'S Office Talk given at Peace Center, 152-160 W. 126th St., New York City,
Saturday, July 5th, 1941 A.D.F.D., Time -- 10:30 A.M.



FATHER DIVINE

FATHER DIVINE

 

When the LORD is in His Holy Temple, if all the earth keeps silent, there will be the revealing of great mysteries. On this particular morning the Mind of GOD went back to the previous night, to the glorious celebration of Independence Day at the Rockland Palace and the beautiful and inspiring demonstration by the "Rosebuds".

At the conclusion of the banquet at the Palace Mission, as is His custom on Sunday evenings, FATHER had returned to the Peace Center to serve the regular midnight banquet. The vibrations were high and there was great rejoicing by the angels over their beloved Savior and by HIM over His virtuous ones. Thus, this happy occasion lingering in FATHER'S thoughts the next morning, HE turned to one of His secretaries and requested the reading of chapter sixty-two, verse five of the Book of Isaiah, from the Bible on His desk.

The outcome of the reading and our Redeemer's enlightening interpretations and comments was this interesting little talk showing the actual fulfillment of the Scripture in our very midst.

Praise the Holy Name of the LORD, FATHER DIVINE!

(The foregoing statements are those of the transcriber, and the talk opens with the secretary reading Isaiah 62:5.)

 

Secretary: (reading)

'For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy GOD rejoice over thee.
'I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night . . .'


FATHER: Don't you see the fulfillment of it? Like last night, I had to think of it stressfully because after we got here we got wild, you know, in a way of speaking. They could not keep silent, on the watchmen on the wall too, from a reality point of view.

Secretary: (reading)

'. . . ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence.
'And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
'The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies . . .'


FATHER: You see, no more giving your virtues to be meat for mortality, lust and passion.

Secretary: Isn't that a beautiful interpretation?

Another Secretary: I was wondering about that.

Secretary: (reading)

'. . . and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast labored . .'


FATHER: It's wonderful!

Secretary: I mean, there were plenty of women keeping men, weren't there -- most every one.

FATHER: It's true.

 

Enjoying the Fruit of Their Labor

Secretary: (reading)

'But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness.'


Now, isn't that fulfilled?

FATHER: And it speaks about going to divide the spoil with the proud.

Secretary: (reading)

'Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
'Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his works before him.
'And they shall call them, the holy people, the redeemed of the LORD; and thou shalt be called, sought out, a city not forsaken.
'Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.
'Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?
'I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me; for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
'For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.
'And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.'


FATHER: You see, that is why they cannot do anything.

 

The Government Discriminated Against the Peace Mission

Now, everything, even to the government itself, did not even grant us the privilege of having pictures that are sent here for free distribution to other religious organizations -- they would not let us have them.

Secretary: It's wonderful!

FATHER: Mine own Arm brought My Salvation, you see. That is why they don't do it. Even in getting exempted for anything, you see -- I mean, like tax exemption and some of those things, to help you lean on.

Secretary: (reading)

'And I will tread down the people in mine anger . . .'


FATHER: That is why the actual demonstration of it at times takes place when the Spirit is trampling, you know. Lots of times it manifests the tread of GOD upon the people. I mean, it actually spiritually dramatizes the tread of GOD, and then again at times it has been the expression of being drunk so many times.

Secretary: (reading)

'. . . and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.
'I will mention the loving kindness of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed upon us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindness.
'For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie . . .'
FATHER: (singing) "Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth . . ."

Secretary: Isn't that wonderful, FATHER?

FATHER: It is wonderful how the Spirit actually brings into actuality and into reality the things that had been predicted.

 

"The Angel of His Presence Saved Them"

Secretary: (reading)

'. . . and so He was their Savior.
'In all of their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit; therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
'Then he remembered the days of old; Moses and his people, saying: Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?
'That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name?'


I mean that certainly takes any glory from themselves, doesn't it?

FATHER: It does.

Secretary: It gives the glory to Him to Whom it is due. (reading:)

'That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?
'And a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused them to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name.
'Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?

 

". . . Though Israel Acknowledged Us Not."

'Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our FATHER, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.'
FATHER: It is Wonderful!

Secretary: Now, isn't that true? Abraham doesn't know anything about us and Israel won't recognize us because we are not Israelites from the Israel standard. But yet we are the beloved of GOD. Now, that's wonderful!

FATHER: It's true. You see, Abraham knew nothing about you and Israel won't recognize you. It is actually true. This tribe that is coming up now of every nation, every language, every tongue and every people, Abraham knew nothing about and did not speak of directly; but yet parably speaking in the message of his actions and obedience to GOD, he was, as so to speak, paving out the way for these he knew not of. So it's a wonderful thought.

Secretary: (reading)

'O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servant's sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
'The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.'


Does that mean the world today, the actual land?

FATHER: Yes, and the places that are called holy.

 

"They Were Not Called by Thy Name"

Secretary: (reading)

'We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.'


And it's true; those who are doing all the fighting and the treading down of the holy places, they are not called by Your Name. They don't accept You.

FATHER: Yes.

Secretary: (reading)

'Oh, that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the water to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence . . .'


FATHER: Berlin said this morning that there were five hundred thousand Russian casualties.

Secretary: Half a million! Phew!

FATHER: Yes, they killed and maimed that many, and they say they are rushing on.

Another Secretary: That's a number to mow down, all right.

Another Secretary: Five hundred thousand! FATHER, that would make five cities!

FATHER: It's true. Sure, sure!

Secretary: Because there are only around one hundred thousand in some of the largest western cities -- that's excluding the three largest.

 

A Few of the Largest Cities

FATHER: Yes, some of the large southern cities, too. Of course, Chicago and Philadelphia and Baltimore and New Orleans and New York and Boston are large, but the other cities are small -- I mean, would be five hundred thousand population -- but, of course, you cannot always say it is true; but the Russians admit they are retreating in some places.

Secretary: It's something to consider!

FATHER: But that isn't all. You haven't got it all; all of the Scripture is not fulfilled yet.

Secretary: (reading)

'For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O GOD, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
'Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways; behold thou art wroth; for we have sinned; in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
'But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags . . .'

 

The Evidence of the Truth

FATHER: Not so much as to what you see, but the spirit and the significance of the devotion as put forth into expression with persons; but as evidence of truth, with or without a person, it would be the same. It is wonderful! So I would rejoice over them. Do you know it said that?

Secretary: I hadn't seen it -- picked it up, personally.

Another Secretary: (who had just entered the office) I didn't hear that, FATHER.

FATHER: Read it again.

Secretary: (turning back to Isaiah 62:5 and reading)

'For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee; and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy GOD rejoice over thee.'


Secretary: I see. That's beautiful. >

Another Secretary: Absolutely fulfilled last night.

FATHER: It is being fulfilled, isn't it? It has not stopped yet.

Secretary: It's true, because the works have just begun. (reading)

'But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
'And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
'But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are thy clay, and thou our potter; and we are all the work of thy hand.
'Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
'Thy holy cities are all wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
'Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and our pleasant things are laid waste.'

 

Being Fulfilled Now

FATHER: Now, you see, that is fulfilled where Jerusalem and the different places are trodden down.

Secretary: It's true. So many places are laid waste, and like Stalin gave an order to leave nothing standing; burn everything behind them. I mean, it will be a desolate place, won't it?

FATHER: Well, where will they go? They will go into the cliffs, the rocks and into the sea.

Secretary: The Bible says that, doesn't it?

FATHER: Yes.

Secretary: They will flee to the mountain and flee to the seas and beg the mountains to fall on them; and there won't be any hiding place.

Mother: FATHER, that cave in the mountain, they are working like they are putting lights in there.

Secretary: Maybe they're going to make it an air raid shelter.

FATHER: Yes, maybe. All right -- just a little more of that (indicating the Bible).

Secretary: (reading)

'. . . and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
'Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
'I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day . . .'

 

Verified

FATHER: You see, I came to a nation that was not called by My Name.

Secretary: Isn't that true? (reading)

'I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;'


FATHER: After their own imaginations.

Secretary: (reading)

'A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;
'Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh.'


FATHER: ". . . which remain among the graves," you see; like I mentioned about how those people go out and worship -- especially of the woman next door -- worship the grave, the dead and all such as that; and make monuments of idols, images -- in the likeness of angels and the like; and,

'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.'


They are actually graven images, graven out of beautiful marble stone and the like, and they worship those things and they eat swine's flesh and the gravy of abominable things, the broth of the swine's flesh -- pork -- the gravy of it is in their vessels.

Secretary: Is that literal?

 

Literal Observance of the Passage

FATHER: The Seventh Day Adventists take it literally.

Secretary: That's why X . . . won't eat pork.

FATHER: Sure. That's where they get those points -- take it literally.

Secretary: (reading)

'. . . and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
'Which say, stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.'


And that is what the people say, especially those church members say, "Don't come to my church because we are holy and we are right and you are the 'other fellow.'" (reading)

'Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom.
'Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills; therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom."
'Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
'And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.'


It is wonderful!

 

 

"A Rest for My People"

(reading)

'And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
'But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.'


I suppose that will be entertaining the army.

FATHER: Yes.

Secretary: (reading)

'Therefore I will number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.'


FATHER: It's wonderful! You see, those things are actually being fulfilled and many of which are fulfilled from a literal point of view as well as mental and spiritual, and the fulfillment of those things from a literal point of view is but the abstract expression of the reality of the thing.

Secretary: FATHER, I was thinking how true that was. When it looks like something disastrous is just about to happen and the thought comes within. "But I'm doing my best to follow FATHER," and instantaneously there is a feeling of assurance in your soul, as if though nothing could come to you; and it's true, isn't it?

FATHER: Yes. How near are you finished that chapter?

Secretary: I'm reading chapter sixty-five. I finished the other one. Chapter sixty-two was a very short chapter.

 

Isaiah, Chapter 24

FATHER: Yes, sixty-two was the main one. Well now, go back to the twenty-fourth.

Secretary: I like the book of Isaiah.

FATHER: Oh, that's the Prophet.

Secretary: (having returned to chapter twenty-four) Oh, that is what YOU were talking about and I was trying to read to get to it. I thought it came after that. (reading)

'Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.'


FATHER: And it seemed the LORD was going to do it.

Secretary: It didn't call YOU Hitler, did it?

FATHER: Well, it didn't go by that name in the prophecy. Read on.

Secretary: (reading)

'And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower . . .'

 

Now about to Be Fulfilled in Russia

FATHER: Now, you see, everything, according to Stalin's message -- the rich and the poor and those who sell and those who buy -- now, he said to burn up everything as you go. I suppose they have airplanes and such as spray poison on all of the wheat fields, so they cannot eat it; it will kill them. It is wonderful! And no doubt they will poison the water, so the Germans will go to drink the water and it will kill them, and all of that, you know; like they said about this poison gas.

Secretary: FATHER, what about what Mr. Ruffin said: in England there was no more caste; everybody had been made equal?

FATHER: Sure. What about France? -- of all society?

Another Secretary: They are all Germans now. They have to have German names on their stores and everything.

FATHER: You see, what Hitler would do if he could do it, no doubt; if this country was at war, maybe he might go to the Ashokan Dam and poison all the water to kill all the people from Albany down to New York, or from New York all around.

Secretary: FATHER, YOU aren't supposed to give him any ideas.

FATHER: Well, they have those ideas. They do, you see. It's just like they said about us when we first went up to Greenkill. You know, they said we would have to have our reservoir protected and, of course, the state reservoir and all of the water in the city and in Albany and in all of the places around, no doubt.

Secretary: That's why they're building another one in Philadelphia.

 

Sabotage

FATHER: Sure -- no doubt they would only bee spies that would do that -- sabotage, I mean -- but it would not be a regular fight, you see. They don't usually do that in the regular war. All right, see what that says?

Secretary: (reading)

'The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for the LORD hath spoken this word.'


FATHER: Well, that must be Stalin. He said to destroy everything behind as you go.

Secretary: But he (Isaiah) said YOU said it.

FATHER: Well, that's what I say. It must be the LORD.

Secretary: I know, YOU got in him to make him do that.

Another Secretary: The same as GOD raised up Pharaoh.

Another Secretary: Yes, GOD can use the "other fellow" for His own purpose, too. (reading)

'The earth mourneth and faideth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away; the haughty people of the earth do languish.'


FATHER: Just like you see the picture of those tanks going and going right on, and they firing at them and they just maneuvering right on.

Secretary: They say the German tanks and the Russian tanks rush right on one another; that's the only way they can . . .

FATHER: And how fast did they say those tanks can run, some of them?

Secretary: Seventy miles. These are American tanks -- I don't know about those.

 

The Earth Defiled by Transgression

Secretary: (reading)

'The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
'Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.'


FATHER: The man said last night, how many orphan babies?

Secretary: One hundred and ten thousand!

FATHER: What does the next say?

Secretary: (reading)

'The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merry hearted do sigh.
'The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
'They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
'The city of confusion is broken down; every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
'There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
'In the city is left desolation . . .'


FATHER: But the main thing was about the virgin, the fifth verse of the sixty-second chapter:

'For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee; and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy GOD rejoice over thee.'


(And thus concluded this beautiful, instructive talk.)

 


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