A group of Crusaders in the 1940's
(Upon coming up from the Table, after the proof reading of the interview granted to Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings and their son, a discussion arose and in the discussion a significant point was again stressed concerning how the young man, just through disobeying and not staying under the Jurisdiction of FATHER’S Protection but leaving the Mission and going out one night had subjected himself to being picked up for questioning concerning a crime that had been committed that same evening. Although it was discovered he had not participated in the crime, yet through further questioning he was held under incarceration for three weeks because of other charges. FATHER then brought out this significant Office Talk, the thoughts of which are deep to be considered and should be taken cognizance of by each and every individual. FATHER speaks as follows:)
FATHER: Many times a person does not pay the penalty for the crime—the act of the crime. Many persons have not committed the act but they have committed the crime and they are, in My Consideration, as though they had committed the act! You may jot those thoughts down in your memories and in your mind and in your notebooks for your consideration.
Many. many years ago there was a man who had supposedly committed a crime similar to that of which this or that man was charged with in the act of taking this streetcar motorist off of the car and rushing her down in the woods and committing a crime—and he was charged with some similar such charge—and he went to court and he was sentenced three years in the penitentiary. He took an appeal and he went back and he was sentenced five years!
When he first went to court he was found guilty and sentenced, according to the court, three years for the crime; but he took an appeal and he went back and he was sentenced five years! He got two years more than what he had first received because he was more what he was charged with in the last trial than he was in the beginning!
MOTHER DIVINE: The spirit of the mind.
FATHER: Yes. That spirit had increased in him and he was more guilty by the Spirit of Equity and Justice, and he was more severely a criminal to that. He was obliged to get five years, where at the time he only received three in the first trial!
MOTHER DVINE: That is a wonderful point, FATHER. That is just like YOU say, what you harmonize with, you become to be a part of.
FATHER: And another man did the same thing—tried about the same thing. This I AM speaking of now was a different one. Both were in the court at the same time and the trial came up for the county or state court—whatever it was—at the same time. The man who had taken a man’s wife and run away with her and put ground-up glass in the man’s food so as to kill him, and it was said that he was found guilty and he also received three years at the same time this other young man did; and he took an appeal and he went up and he was fined or sentenced the second time for five yeears!
He was not so much found charged—I mean, the penalty or punishment was not so much for the act but was for the crime! The longer he stayed in prison waiting trial, the more wild he became and more violent he became after the manner of the same spirit of criminology that he had, that caused him to be found guilty of committing the act. The crime was more pronounced, and therefore he was more guiltyof committing the crime afterwards than he was in the beginning because he was worse than he was when he was first arrested!
MOTHER DIVINE: That is what YOU have said concerning the lynch mobs—that those who were with the lynch mobs and participated with them, were just as guilty as those in the mob who actually committed the crime.
FATHER : Sure! “Man looks on the outward appearance but GOD looks on (and in)
the heart!” Truly might have I said in the Sunship Degree nineteen hundred years ago—after the manner of men I was speaking—I said:
“He that looketh upon a woman, to lust after her, has already committed adultery in his heart!”
So you can plainly see what I AM speaking of is a fact and they are figures too stout to be denied!
MOTHER DIVINE: FATHER, if people would just get that, it would help them so much!
FATHER: So the point of view of what we were speaking was very pronounced!
Another time I visited a prison, and as I afore said, it has been explained; a reiteration would not be necessary at this time. But it was plain to see that the man who had supposedly committed the crime was guilty of the act, he was more so guilty in the last stage or the last trial than he was in the first one—for his crime and spirit of crime had increased and multiplied; therefore, he was more guilty in My Sight!
MOTHER DIVINE: According to that, FATHER, prisons can’t really make men decent citizens.
FATHER: Not unless they are changed! They must have a Change of Mind and be convinced and convicted to that degree so as to see and know what they have thought and have done was wrong.
But what did I say concerning the mystery and what was the point of view that caused ME to call your attention to those criminals—those prisoners?
Secretary: I think YOU were showing that he was paying for his crime of takmg dope, but now that he has gone, he might commit a worse crime and gain a worse punishment.
FATHER: I was showing that if any person is guilty of a crime, at times, they may not even be guilty of the act but they may be guilty of the crime, and therefore be just as guilty as though they had committed the act.
The act of the offense is not the crime itself—it is the outward expression of the crime. It demonstrates, manifests the crime that is committed, but they may commit the crime without the act of it!
MOTHER DIVINE: As YOU said through Jesus, that if a man is angry with his brother without a cause, he is a murderer already!
FATHER: Yes. It is the condition of the spirit and the nature of the person, and if he has free access for expression he will commit the act if he hates another, and especially without a Cause! As i continue to say,
“The carnal mind is enmity against GOD!”
It is hostility and it is hostile-ness that would commit the crime and the act thereof, if it had free access for expression! The very Carnal Mind in Itself being Hostility; being Enmity which is Hostility; and the hostile-ness of a person is an expression of hate or prejudice, and it will cause a person to commit a crime and also the offense!
But that was something to be deeply considered, how those things are done. Will cause a person to commit a crime and the act thereof! The act, at times, may not be the direct crime, but it is the outward expression of the crime for which the prisoner is found guilty of when he commits the act; but he is not found guilty of committing the crime, necessarily, without the action!
MOTHER DIVINE: The judges will be glad to hear that, because then they would not feel perhaps, so guilty in sentencing what they would find after to be an apparently innocent person, YOU know according to the facts.
FATHER: Sure. You see, the man of whom I mentioned a little while ago that was charged with attempted murder, and as it may have been deemed or could have been deemed as kidnapping—when he was apprehended, no doubt he desired more persistently to kill someone than he did in the beginning!
Secretary: It is certainly true, FATHER.
FATHER: And with that mind and desire to kill someone, even the ones who had apprehended him, he was guilty of the crime. It he had not been guilty of it before then, if he had been innocent of the act of what he was charged with, he was guilty of the crime!
(At this point one of the secretaries tells of a clipping she read where a man who had been plaaced under a peace bond by his wife, was released by the police and he came back and killed his wife and some of his children. FATHER then says:)
Crime increased and increased in him to do the thing that he may have been charged with. He may not have been so guilty of the crime as he was afterwards!
MOTHER DIVINE: It is marvelous, because, as in the case of the gentleman who attempted to kill the man by putting gound glass in his food, he may have wanted to do it more so because it was not his fault he was behind bars, and he couldn’t get to them to do so!
FATHER: Yes. And I could see when we went in the prison with others, and I could see he was of that type the people would call a maniac; he looked upon the beauty of those who were even with ME! I could see it. And I said to them when we left, or before then—I said, “Now he is going for another trial and he will get more time this time!” If he would have taken what they gave him first, he would have had only three years; but I said, “He will get more this time, and unless he changes his mind he will get five years. And then if he does not change his mind and they give him a chance for another appeal, a third appeal, but the next time he will get ten years, because he is increasing murder and crime within, the longer he is prison!
Secretary: That’s why YOU tell those who write YOU, about an open confession and the forsaking of their sins.
FATHER: The forsaking of those things is the great essential!
(And with that last significant thought stamped in our minds for consideration, this Office Talk came to a conclusion.)
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