The little home at Sayville, Long Island,
where hundreds of people saw
and were healed by MOTHER DIVINE
(As an eye witness and one who was actually raised from the dead by FATHER DIVINE Personally, at Sayville, ( in the early 1930s) the writer recounts some of "Sayville Days".)
As a challenge to human disbelief and a witness to Divine favor lies the little fishing village of Sayville, Long Island on the shore of the Great South Bay.
Here in the early years of this century where for decades men lived and died with virtually no spiritual foresight, no cataclysm in the social order of things, a wondrous Event transpired marking Sayville reminiscently with biblical Judea of old, its soil embracing in parallel the stirring, healing scenes of that day.
Although this momentous change appeared to have occurred overnight, the days and weeks passed by before the world actually became aware that Someone was here!
Yes, Someone was here, and His miraculous Works betrayed HIM. It was to this quiet Long Island spot the Savior of men, FATHER DIVINE, had come, unaided and unannounced. Knowing that His Love alone could repair their broken hearts and bodies, HE drew unto Himself a human throng burdened with every known vice and disease, and tenderly healed them.
They needed GOD and HE loved them. What greater meaning could CHRIST'S Second Coming among men have had?
From far and near, seeking an escape from their mundane existence, the people came. They traveled by bus and car, trekked across the country on trains, buses and even on foot, and His Love delivered them.
They filled the yards, the lawn, crammed the windows outside peering in, walked through the flower garden and crowded the grounds completely. Soliciting a blessing they pressed into the open house, standing on chairs to look and listen while our Savior's Words flowed like milk and honey to their starving souls.
In the humble little dwelling of green and white at 72 Macon Street that HE prepared for Himself, Mother Divine and a few of His co-workers, our Savior set up the illustrious Welcome Table. His wide-open invitation implied no man-made restrictions. "Come and dine" included all classes, races, creeds and colors.
This writer was among the masses who came, a multitude of needy guests. HE asked no recompense and we had none to offer, saving the woes and cares we yielded to HIM; the sorrows and sicknesses imposed upon us. The wealthy few HE restrained by saying, "I AM a Free Gift, gratis to mankind."
Seated around this Table of abundance dedicated to humanity's needs, we felt at peace with the world, and mingling our emotions of wonderment, we whispered to each other: "Peace, isn't it wonderful?" with always the same glad response, "It is wonderful."
HE understood all our wants. We beheld the sweet tenderness, saw the Divine sympathy in His beautiful Eyes, as HE looked round about on them that sat about HIM.
It was here we humbly learned the meaning of, "I thank YOU, FATHER"; the significance of "Serve one, serve all." For believers a new world had entered in, an atmosphere made super-sweet with the actual Presence of CHRIST.
His compassionate Love recaptured our faith. The blind went away seeing, the scornful believing, the deaf hearing and the lame walking. Somehow we knew that just to believe was the Keynote.
On the hallowed ground itself the dead were raised before our very eyes, hopeless cases restored, the hypocritical dropped their veil and the hearts of the obdurate were moved to repentance. Yet HE laid Hands on no one for HE firmly declared as it is written: "It is not by power, nor by might but by My Spirit, says the Lord."
Nevertheless, many who actually saw just could not believe but were overcome with incredulity. It was too wonderful for the faithless, too holy for the ungodly!
Delightful were the days when our Savior stood outside the Sayville Home near the front porch. It was our privilege to listen as groups of men and women, many a Nicodemus or top official among them, questioned HIM on many points of the law of both GOD and man. His quiet Words of authority were irrefutable and they marveled, not only because of His amazing Work with human lives but the inexpressible "power" in His Own.
It would entail volumes to tell the full story of "Sayville Days" witnessed by thousands in that day and acclaimed by millions in this one.
We recall one among many familiar scenes. This writer sat by the window in the dining room as the hungry and afflicted, the well-to-do and the poor came in to fill the Table. A blind man led by a friend, approached to take a seat. Our Savior had not yet come in to serve. Unexpectedly, as the blind man touched the chair his eyes came wide open and he saw!
Shouting for joy, jumping, running and leaping he cried, "I see, oh my GOD, I see! I can see, thank GOD, I see!" Sharing his happiness we, too, began shouting rejoicingly, and in those first few glorious minutes when human complexes were forgotten, the Holy Ghost descended as at the Day of Pentecost overshadowing all in the room, and those receptive to Its touch received their very first baptism of the Holy Spirit including this writer.
One could repaint with words of graphic beauty the manifold tender deeds of our beloved Savior, yet the half could never be told. However, in the storehouse of memories one particular gem merits priority.
On a late afternoon when the masses had come and gone and the evening hours were drawing near, I strolled through the open house feeling an atmosphere of the very sweetness of the Presence of CHRIST. At the sitting room I stood still. Our Savior sat in a rocking chair, His gentle Eyes closed softly singing to someone in the room with HIM: "I'm all in your cells and I'm living in you; I'm all in your breath and I'm breathing in you; I'm all in your legs and I'm walking in you; in every cell, limb, vein and bone too!"
HE rocked as HE sang. I heard the glad cry of the man whose limbs had long been useless as he walked back and forth across the room saying: "Thank YOU, JESUS; thank YOU, JESUS", with each step his legs growing stronger, his soul happier.
As I turned away quite overwhelmed, something stirred within, untapped memories, perhaps, of long ago, I wondered had I been with HIM then?
It was with a rejoicing heart that we daily watched these healings and the once infirm now carrying their crutches learning to walk in a new-found faith.
Sayville Days were lived in an atmosphere of sweet expectancy. With each sunrise something wonderful occurred. The arrival of chartered buses of happy newcomers from California stirred our Savior to masterful discourses of infinite beauty and while at the Welcome Table the proletariat and Who's Who personalities rubbed shoulders.
HE came to rescue the perishing and those who lived in the Sacred Home itself all bore witness to some special deliverance. There was the one with heavy elastic stockings worn for years who boldly removed them stepping out on the Promise of GOD. The tiniest tot, running gaily about, had been raised from the dead by our LORD, when only a few days old and was now a healthy, strong child. His deeds of mercy are more legibly written in the hearts of millions . . . untellable tales of compassionate Love.
Very often it was our Savior's delight to surprise His guests by Personally chauffeuring them to the little Sayville railroad station a most unexpected blessing. Occasionally when HE was busy otherwise, HE sent Mr. Joseph, whose history of life of well over a hundred-year span was widely known, to meet incoming arrivals.
A memento of unusual significance is still vividly with me. It was one fall morning when our LORD confided that HE was on His way to the station to meet a very noted personage from New York City. As the regular mid-day train rolled to a stop only one passenger alighted at the far end of the platform a shabby dressed individual whose shoes appeared about ready to fall off his feet. As he shuffled slowly toward us, our Savior said, "We came to meet a notable, it is true, but instead we are finding CHRIST in disguise."
Tipping his dusty hat courteously the gentleman asked to be directed to the home of FATHER DIVINE on Macon Street. Graciously he was invited into the waiting car which is so characteristic of the widely known hospitality of FATHER DIVINE. FATHER listened attentively as the gentleman, not knowing Who he was speaking to, told how eagerly he looked forward to meeting the great FATHER DIVINE in Person.
When next I saw the unannounced visitor, I scarcely recognized him. He was sitting at the Welcome Table completely transformed from head to foot in distinctive new clothes and so deeply awed and touched by all the wonderful things happening to him he could only shake his head in silence.
But his surprise doubled when FATHER DIVINE came in to serve the Table. For the first time he knew that his station acquaintance, his Benefactor and the Great FATHER DIVINE, his Host, were one and the same. With pent-up emotion he gave humble thanks for everything, acknowledging our Savior's Deity.
Responding, FATHER declared HE was entertaining CHRIST in disguise, that His guest was compelled to receive so many blessings since his very nature was one of true humility, and that we must always be mindful how we entertain strangers lest we entertain angels unaware. Such were the practical lessons that FATHER DIVINE taught.
Across the sea of time and down through the centuries it was for this men had yearned, hoped and prayed, the coming of the LORD! Yet, when the Master Fisherman came to claim His own, the little fishing village did not receive HIM fulfilling His Own re-echoing Word of ages past: "A prophet is not without honor save in His own country."
Although our Savior's most far-reaching Sermons were preached delivering baskets of food, clothing and provisions to the needy of Sayville through His Own Personal Care, they did not repent, and great were the persecutions and prosecutions endured by our Savior, FATHER DIVINE, the record of which is publicly well known. These only served, however, to further endear HIM to the clamoring multitudes who knew His Goodness, and to root His Work in Righteousness and Peace.
In His last Sermon before the Verdict at Mineola, our Savior said stressfully, "I AM rejoicing that the blood was sacrificed in this Body as well as in others for the bringing into actuality of the reality of the Love of GOD to mankind! So I do not regret anything that has been endured. I do not regret the seeming persecutions in Sayville, that have answered your request that you have so often sung and said:
'Go spread the tidings round, go spread the tidings round wherever man is found.'
"And because of criticism, persecutions and prosecutions it has spread the
tidings round, and it is being spread wherever man is found. Those that think
they are My enemies, they are My friends . . it is a blessing!"
It was shortly after His brief stay in Mineola, Long Island, that FATHER DIVINE returned there one sunny afternoon with Mother Divine and a few of His secretarial staff. With the deepest respect for HIM, the authorities called the inmates together. When they saw our Savior they shouted enthusiastically. All had learned to love and revere HIM. To their delight FATHER sang several of His original compositions and delivered a friendly Message of comfort and good will. Before departing HE extended to all the right hand of fellowship leaving on record a Savior's tender solicitude for the rejected, the downcast, the least considered of His whole creation.
Nearly two thousand years ago Jesus went from city to city healing and preaching His Gospel of the Kingdom of GOD. In this present age the people literally flocked to the Savior's doorsteps to receive His Message and comforting Words GOD with them! It was then they began to gratefully enshrine this little Mecca of Faith in their hearts receiving thereby instantaneous healings with their first footmarks on this Sacred Soil.
Referring to this, FATHER DIVINE said in part,
'. . . it has been made known the universe over in a great measure, the Work of the Spirit as It worked out Its mystery in Sayville as a Shrine apparently, along about 1932, just before I left there when thousands were out there, after those good folks had been out there, the thousands were going out and hundreds were healed by merely walking on the ground!"It was not that that particular ground was in any way different from other ground, saving as it was set apart for the Work of GOD, and the Will of GOD to be done therein and thereon.
"According to the conviction of many sincere hearts, they created it into a Shrine-ship Degree of expression, and those who would enter those grounds at that time, they were healed of the afflictions and diseases because of the Shrine-ship Degree of expression according to the conscious religious conviction of many."
FATHER DIVINE stated on another occasion,
'As a Shrine I stand as a Person in the minds of men. Those who look at ME persistently with the spirit of sincerity because of their religious conviction and being conscientious in their endeavors to please ME, and believing with the spirit of sincerity I AM the One, every time I speak internally, that Something within will respond. I say, that Something within will respond.
'As a Living Shrine I came, throwing aside all of the inanimate shrines of the land, presenting Myself as a Living Sacrifice before the children of men that they all might gaze upon the Perfect Picture mentally and spiritually: their prayers will be heard answered speedily.
'As a Shrine I stand! As a Shrine I came! As a Shrine I move, I live and I have My Being and when you think on ME with the Spirit of Sincerity and think harmoniously and in this Direction, your prayers will be heard and answered, for prayers are the hearts' sincere desires.'
The far-famed Work of our Savior, FATHER DIVINE, has moved forward to international
scope, but the little Sayville Shrine still remains imparting its blue-print
of faith to millions of believing hearts.
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