FATHER and MOTHER DIVINE
with the Rosebuds and some Guests at the Bible Institute
This most striking and soul-stirring heart reviving Message was given by our Lord and King in all HIS Majesty and Omnipotence, shortly after an interesting testimony by one who related several incidents concerning various people he knew who had run up in opposition to FATHER DIVINE and HIS glorious Work and Mission by maliciously speaking against the Truth and against the Creator HIMSELF. The brother who testified this told how he had warned them that they were running up against a Live Wire when they blasphemed the Name of FATHER DIVINE, but, he said, they refused to heed his words, and as a result, dire circumstances befell the majority of them physically, mentally, spiritually, economically, financially and otherwise.
This vital Message serves as a warning to one and all to let nothing between your soul and your Savior; for HE it is that shall reward you according as your works may be!
(The foregoing statements are those of the transcriber, after which FATHER Speaks as follows:)
PEACE, EVERYONE: Just as the last speaker was concluding his remarks, I thought, what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Especially when he mentioned the man who lost his limbs, according to his conviction and his belief, through criticism, and the one who was left behind was not willing to live the Life of GOD! Truly might have Jesus said,
"Loveth thou me more than these?"
If you do not love GOD more than all of the world about you, you can in no case inherit eternal life.
Hence, the speaking of the minister who mentioned the teaching of life eternal is well worth considering; but to put it forth into expression and acquire and gain life eternal, it calls for a sacrifice, a self-denial and a consecration to the Will and the Service of GOD. So it is a privilege to live in the Actual Presence of GOD.
You hear lots of people who claim to be Followers of MINE, say, "I am a Follower of FATHER DIVINE;" yet they are gaining, according to mortality's version, that which mortality is seeking after.
"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"
"Every Mountain and Hill Shall Be Made Low"
I often think of thousands of people with whom I have come in contact and how they stood highly and lofty in consideration, both within themselves and of themselves within others; but refusing to take on the Life, the Nature and the Characteristics of the Christ by self-denial, consecration and by a living sacrifice, it was a matter of impossibility for them to live; it was a matter of impossibility for them to have victory over sickness, sorrow, pain and death! But the one hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed from among men, they followed the Lamb whithersoever He goeth! They followed as He blazed the trail and led the way to Life Eternal and victory over the grave. Aren't you glad!
"These are they who followed the lamb, having their Father's name written in their forehead;"
keeping GOD'S Name, GOD'S Nature, GOD'S Spirit and Mind uppermostly in consciousness at all times; being led by the perfection of Virtue and Holiness, the Way Christ came to show you! Aren't you glad! And by this you know you are following the Footsteps of the Christ with or without a Body if you live soberly, righteously and godly and let this Mind be in you that was in Jesus according to your religious conviction.
To follow Christ is to do exactly what you believe Jesus did as He led the way to victory and to life and health and peace. But if you deviate from that way portrayed by HIM, with or without a Bodily Form, you are deviating from your conscious prospect of the victory over death, the "other place" and the grave; for Jesus showed how to mortify the deeds of the body by living according to a perfect Life, with His Mind stayed on GOD Almighty.
Is Anything Worth More to You than GOD?
"What will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Is it money? Is is wealth? Is it fame? Is it human affection? Is it human fancies, tendencies and pleasures? Is is your gift, profession, labor or trade? Is there anything greater, bigger and better in your consideration than that of GOD, your great Creator? ("No, FATHER Dear!" immediately responded the large audience in one voice.)
Place all things on the Scale of Justice and with the Spirit of Equity weigh them and see if they will overbalance in your consideration the Love of GOD, the love you have for GOD—GOD Personified as an abstract expression, tangibilated and materialized for the conscious mentality to realize.
What is the greatest in your consideration? What is that great thing — the biggest and the best in your consideration? ("GOD! YOU, FATHER Dear!" came the shout from the multitude.} What will you give in exchange? Will you give anything in exchange for GOD? Evidence proves the Truth by the actuated Words of Expression, for
"Actions speak louder than words."
"FATHER, I love YOU!" I heard you say. But no man can love GOD wholeheartedly unless he can let GOD be enthroned and ascend the throne in your consideration — the throne of your mind — and dethrone everything else and let Christ alone reign as Lord of lords and as King of kings. That is the way you can tell ME, by the Actuated Words of Expression, but not by lips that are deceiving and the words that are perverted. Aren't you glad!
The Love of GOD Is Impersonal and Unselfish
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend."
The Love of GOD cannot be adulterated with human affection. There is no comparison; for the Love of GOD is impersonal and unselfish.
Why is it that I Personally have the blessings of Spirit, of Life and of Understanding in abundance to give? Because of the Sacrifice for you I made! Can you not see the mystery? Why are there so many, millions following ME? Because of the sacrifice of the would-be friends I could have had after the manner of men. But the gain is multiplied by an hundredfold over and over again.
One grain of corn planted on good soil, a grain that is good and it germinates, develops and comes forth and matures in its fullest measure on good ground this year, and you plant its offspring next year and continue for many years without the destruction of the increase and the amount that has been multiplied, how many grains would you have for that one grain you cast into the ground?
"No man has forsaken all these things lest he gain an hundredfold more in this present time."
Why is it I have so many Children, as it may be termed, to call ME FATHER in all simplicity and sincerity, as young as I AM apparently? The sacrifice of the would-be child or would-be children is a psychological mystery of the reproduction of the same, as in the illustration I explained concerning that corn, and the very first grain increased and multiplied year after year from that one grain that was sown or sacrificed for the gain of other grains.
You Lose What You Have Unless You Put It to Exchange
Unless you sacrifice that which you do have; unless you plant that corn; unless it dies, it cannot live again; and you will lose that which you have unless you put it to an exchange, just as I did in the illustration concerning that grain, that one grain that was planted on good soil — in other words, in good ground.
This is just a sketch and a reflection of a percent of a fraction of a grain, a different kind of a grain this time, of the mystery of what I AM telling you.
"No man forsaketh all these things lest he gain an hundredfold more in this present time!"
You all look like folks; not only folk, you look like peoples many — not only people. You look Omnifariously assembled in this assembly, I say, you look omnifariously assembled in this assembly — but I cause you individually, severally and collectively to express yourselves E PLURIBUS UNUM-LY for you are E PLURIBUS UNUM! But with this I see the number, as of the number of a grain of corn increased and multiplied many years over and over again, by the reproduction of its increase and by the continuous planting and continuous increasing and multiplying the same by losing none. The Abundance of the Fullness will surely come for that which you have lost and sacrificed for HIM! Your sacrifices must continue, your sacrifice must remain, to gain as the corn from the one grain. I thank you.