The Great Hall, The Mount of the House of the LORD
Brother: Peace FATHER.
FATHER: Peace! What did you want to see ME for, Mr. S.?
Brother: Well, FATHER, I am glad to have this opportunity again and to say a few words and to ask you to forgive me for being so presumptuous for quitting that job.
FATHER: What kind of job did you have?
Brother: A caretaker's job, taking care of a house; and I was pretty well fed up there and I blew my top and just threw up the whole thing and left all my clothes behind and rushed over and grabbed an airplane so I could be near YOU. Do YOU recall, once I testified that I wanted to be near YOU and YOU said if I would keep the faith and deny myself, I would be near YOU.
(The brother tells FATHER of his boyhood days, stating that he never really made much money and had lived a reckless life and had not been a profitable servant. He stated that he wasn't the kind of person to prove himself and make something out of himself. He also stated that he was broke and had been accepting money from different ones to buy his meals and that he would pay it back when he got a position. FATHER speaks as follows:)
FATHER: Well, MY advice to you would be to at least come under the banner of the Spirit— of the Law of the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus and meet your daily obligations and pay your way and be independent!
Brother: Yes, FATHER.
FATHER: That is the least thing you should do.
Brother: Yes, FATHER.
FATHER: And you don't need to be around without food and shelter! You don't need to be around without comfort and convenience; and if for any cause you are at a place and you do not earn enough to meet those obligations, you should get something else if it was only to do some house cleaning or something of that sort. You could get something you could do to meet your daily obligations and be independent and not become to be a curse.
Brother: That's right, FATHER.
FATHER: For it is written, GOD will say to that slothful and unprofitable servant, "Depart from Me, I know you not!" "I never knew you." So the thought of it is, each one should make themselves independent, happy and free from graft and greed, soliciting and begging and from expressions of begging and express a real citizenry of a true independence and become to be a desirable citizen, attracted and admired by others. That is what you could be if you would be it. As you say , you have an education, you can throw off that old or those old preconceived ideas and opinions of slothfulness and unprofitableness and not become to be a castaway, as said the scripture. You know you should be independent and each person should be independent and if you desire to be independent, you could and can and will be, because you can earn at least enough to meet your daily obligations!
Brother: May I say something?
FATHER: You have said something.
Brother: (persistently) But may I say something, FATHER?
FATHER: I said, you have said something. I was saying something in your defense then.
Brother: Yes, FATHER.
FATHER: And if you want to do that which is just and right and desire to be blessed and enjoy happiness and life, you will from now henceforth, right now go out and meet your daily obligations and be absolutely independent!
Brother: I want to say , I had another meal, I had spoken to the cashier and I told her I had my name in and I was going to speak to YOUand tell YOU everything! In nineteen thirty seven, when I was blessed to see YOU, FATHER, since sixty third street, it is only twice that I haven't paid my way, YOU see. YOU took me off the relief.
FATHER: That is no good to take anybody off the relief if they are going to saboteur the independency and success and prosperity of others; because there are lots of people that like to get off the relief and be a liability on others. If they are on the relief and just be honest about it, and if they don't have any ambition to earn a lively hood, be on the relief and let the relief take care of them— as much as they will give them! But if they are going to be taken off the relief and you have to meet your daily obligations and you put your responsibility on the Church or on anybody else who is earning a lively hood or earning an honest living, why then that is undermining!
Brother; Yes.
FATHER: You should be determined to meet your obligations individually and independently, and if you cannot meet them individually and independently, you should be on the relief! That is what the City, State and Federal Government is for! The Federal Government does not want us to become to be vagabonds! If I would endorse such as that and we all start begging and living on others and not meeting our daily obligations, first thing you know, we all would become a liability and hence would be a detriment to society and to humanity!
Therefore, it is our dispensive duty to meet our daily obligations according to our system of procedure under this jurisdiction— the Peace Mission Movement's Jurisdiction! Every person should pay his way individually, severally and collectively and be independent! That is what would be required of every one; and if they can't do that, then they should get on relief!
But I have made the way possible so that a person can, with a meager sum of about ten dollars a week, earn about ten dollars a week, and pay his way and be absolutely independent! Think of getting sleeping accommodations in places such as we have for as little as two dollars and a half per week, where once you would have been obliged to pay as much as three dollars and a half per day! Then if anyone does not comply with these rules and regulations and does not want to do, and will not do it, then they should be on the relief and should be excluded from our connections! I thank you.
Brother: May I say , FATHER, I made arrangement with one of the brothers to take a cart and today I went out with the cart and picked up five cans of broken glass and I expected to sell them otherwise, and I would have gone to Mr. P. to find a way to pull myself out of the thing. I expected to sell that day , but I couldn't find the brother who could tell me where I could get the best prices.
FATHER: We have a requirement that we all can pay and we believe in everyone being independent and meeting their obligations, paying their way and owing no man, and when and wheresoever it comes in that one that has to be a liability to another, that person should persistently get a position and earn a lively hood if it is only a position sufficient to meet their daily obligations— to pay their way for sleeping accommodations and pay his or her way for their meals and such as would be required. Okay. Peace.
Brother: Thank FATHER, Peace
FATHER: You are welcome.
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