The Divine Tracy Hotel,
Over 50 years of service to the community
Shortly after having given a beautiful and very dynamic Lecture, our SAVIOR arose once more to answer an unspoken question lurking in the minds of some; for it is truly spoken that GOD hears everything you do and sees everything you think and say; therefore, before you call HE will answer and while you are yet speaking HE will hear!
FOR THY WONDROUS WORDS OF WISDOM, DEAR LORD, WE TRULY THANK THEE!
(The foregoing statements are those of the transcriber, after which FATHER Speaks as follows:)
PEACE, EVERYONE: At this instance I would just like to answer a thought that has existed since I have mentioned the Palace Mission Church at Brigantine. Some have thought, as it has been conveyed, as your thoughts are things and they are conveyed--some have thought how could a building like a hotel be a church?
Our Church could not be a full church according to our Church Discipline and according to our Laws and By-Laws of our Church if we did not have it the same as a hotel. We are, according to our Church Discipline, supposed to house the people and feed the people. That is our PRACTICAL RELIGIOUS LIFE and our PRACTICAL SCIENTIFIC RELIGIOUS TEACHING. Hence, our Church is for the purpose of saving the people from all misery, from all disappointment and from all failure.
Our Church could not be just a place to, what you call, worship. We worship in the actuated words of expression which house and clothe those who need clothes, according to the Gospel, by giving a place of refuge according to the prediction in the prophecy concerning the Kingdom of GOD to be a place of refuge and a hiding place from the storms and winds and from the pestilences that come. That is what it means. Therefore, our Church must be as the Brigantine Hotel and as this and as other places are!
Our Church Work is to feed the people. We must house the people, we must give them accommodation and everything necessary for the sustenance of their bodies, for their comfort and for their convenience, and especially those who have none. Therefore, our Church is more especially specifically put forth into expression in PRACTICAL SERVICE to humanity personally than that of merely giving service for the benefit of the soul as it may be termed by the religions.
I have depicted very explicitly the mystery of the soul, the body and the spirit being one. I have explained to you that they are one. Hence, how can I save your soul unless I save your body? That is the mystery!
So take cognizance of the points I have conveyed to you and you will see what our Church consists of. We are obliged to have the same as hotels have, and homes, rescue homes, and every comfort and convenience for the people, or else we cannot and are not expressing our Church Work effectively. That is what I wish to tell you. I thank you.
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