FATHER DIVINE
and a part of His staff on the Rostrum,
Freedom Day, Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA
A surprise to us indeed, and a privilege it was, to be present to hear this beautiful Tea Room Talk, given by our Sweet FATHER, which grew out of a discussion of the true significance of the Freedom Day Celebration, which was held at the Convention Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February first, 1946 A.D.F.D.
The speech which FATHER mentions in this Talk may be found elsewhere in this week's issue of The New Day Magazine.
We thank YOU, Our FATHER-MOTHER-GOD!
(The foregoing statement is that of the transcriber and this very vital and significant Tea-room Talk as transcribed, opens with our Savior speaking firstly as follows:)
The mortal versionated thoughts of men consider it is a great honor among
them to consider those words, to give honor to those people, what they did,
you see, what they did, segregating all the time but not knowing it.
It was wonderful the way Mr. Simmons brought it out that at least they were very near the University of Pennsylvania, yet he said they were intelligent people but they did not know what indivisible meant, or conveyed that thought to them. And it is true, so many people did not and do not actually know it. And if you say what that word means, they may give us the pronunciation; but they don't know what it means after they say it in the Pledge. They don't know that is what it means. They don't know it, they just ignore it; and they just ignore it because they don't know it.
I was in hopes that the stenographers would have gotten his message because that would have substantiated what he was conveying, just as he said he was trying to show them that they are ignorant; but a good many people do not know that indivisible means one and undivided, you see. And yet they talk it over.
And it is something to consider. That is what your educators will do for you -- diplomats and politicians and representatives of society will represent something to you and yet they don't even know what it means, the majority of the deans of the seminaries of this universe, not only this country, but of all of the countries universally. They majority of them do not know that indivisibility means undivided and one, they don't actually know it -- the majority of them do not. So it is something to consider. They think it means one, but in the other sense of bringing what their very pledge says into display and into actuality as a living reality they do not know it. It is so implanted in them that they just think you should be divided.
Something like a businessman said to ME today, something about "so-and- so" people living somewhere, not so far from where I happened to be in the instant; and I said, "I don't care anything about where they live," or words to that effect, "I suppose you know by this that I AM not representing a race or color." And I meant by this of which you see.
(FATHER referred to the amalgamated group which was with HIM at that time. At this point one of FATHER'S secretaries mentioned the fact that as long as she could remember, the "so-and-so's" had hoped to someday dominate the "so-and-so's". FATHER continued speaking :)
They don't want to be one. You see, the whole world, in one sense of the word, they are as though they are at a card table and each one playing his own hand.
In another sense of the word, the whole world is as though they are on a merry-go-round. They want to push the other fellow around and get in the other fellow's place. You see, when the merry-go-round goes 'round it goes around, one getting in the other fellow's place on that side. When it goes around there then he is getting on your side, as the merry-go-round goes 'round. And yet neither one is getting anywhere. They are at the same place, though they may ride all day. As the nation of our civilization, yea, the nations of our present civilization, they have been riding for lo, these many years and are in the same place -- just the same as if children get on a merry-go-round and ride and ride and ride and when night comes they haven't gone anywhere yet -- at the same place - - just riding around.
Then another point for consideration that is not their consideration -- the equal rights. We shall have equal rights. They are contending as on a seesaw, trying to put one up and the other down -- always trying to put themselves up, thinking they can put themselves up by putting someone else down, and it would be that way if you take their see-saw system, their own style.
A Secretary: It took only YOU to do it, FATHER, because it is just as much on one side as it is on the other.
FATHER: They think it is a great thing to try to put someone else down and put themselves up.
((At this time another secretary said that she felt that many would recognize FATHER more if HE were classing Himself as some special race, creed or color. Then they would recognize HIM as a great so-and-so Leader. But since HE is representing the amalgamation of all races, creeds and colors they don't even give HIM consideration to that extent.)
FATHER: Well, naturally they would not want to give honor to ME to that degree and even to that consideration, for fear that it might give equity and a square deal to everybody and they don't want everybody to have a square deal, with their prejudiced minds, their bigoted minds and jealous minds. They want to put someone down and put themselves up, and they know if they give vent to My Spirit and My Mind I will bring all up on one common level. But I AM going to do it anyhow!
It is written:
'The hilly ways shall be made level, and the rough ways plain, and the crooked ways straight, and there shall be no division.'
And I shall do it. It cannot be defeated. There is no way to prohibit it. It
must be done. The Mouth of GOD has declared it. It makes the hilly ways level
and the rough ways plain. It exalts the valleys and brings them together and
all shall be level. So, whatsoever it is that it takes to make things level,
the hilly ways level and exalt the valleys and plains, I have IT!
Another Secretary: Even the mortal minded people have found themselves mixing together as they never had before. Even in the audience at Convention Hall you would see them going out together.
FATHER: Well, they are catching the contagion, the same as much is heard about people now finding large sums of money, turning it in and mentioning and advertising it such as had not been before I came Personally.
There was an article in the paper here last week where someone in Brooklyn found a package of money, just like it came from the bank, of three thousand dollars -- I think it was three thousand and some dollars more -- even wrapped up just like it came from the bank; and I said maybe it was some of My Followers lost it. I AM quite sure it was one who found it. The one that found it was one of the Followers even if he was not conscious of it. They did not say he was a Follower, neither did they say he claimed to be a Follower, but yet he found it and he reported it.
Large sums of money are being found in different parts of the country because it is a contagion. Even Uncle Sam got religion. It is wonderful!
As I was saying today, or thinking within Myself today, My System of domestic relationship in connection with the immediate family, Uncle Sam obeyed My Voice,
'Not until, but if and when a boy is eighteen, it is time for him to be about his Government's business.'
He must be enlisted or drafted presently as an evidence that the eighteen year
is the age limit to be considered as eligible to be responsible and to give service
to and for his land and country and his family.
But before I sent that out and made it plain that they should be responsible for themselves at the age of eighteen and not be a liability on the parents and guardians -- before that time, they used to enlist them after they were twenty-one, but not until then. But Uncle Sam got the contagion and he is speaking in actions in keeping with My Message, for GOD is the Motivating Force that controls the Government through the systems of Government. Oh, it is wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! The very thought all along those lines -- when I said that every country should be, "as with an individual, so with a nation," and everyone who has taken anything from another, he should return it, or the equivalent to the amount that he has taken, and I said in the Platform, not only those of individuals but also nations. Uncle Sam is paying back that which he had taken from the Indians years ago but never attempted to pay in that way until I came Personally.
In these recent years, when I got into the Government more profoundly and more definitely in the actuated words of expression and asserted My Ideas and Opinions by correspondence with the officials, they caught the contagion and they are partakers, and they are speaking and acting in the Name of Uncle Sam, going back paying his old back bills. Uncle Sam got converted.
What said Abraham Lincoln concerning the mystery of this of which I AM now speaking? He was giving the slaveric people of this nation their emancipation from physical slavery, but he requested and desired that the whole nation might have a new birth of freedom under GOD, for he knew, unless they did have a new birth of freedom they would perish. For this cause he said, "that the government by the people, for the people and through the people might not perish from the earth." It was a thought there conveyed in what he said emphasizing the fact that this whole nation might have a new birth of freedom because it was something he could not give them. It was appointed unto him politically to give the slaveric people of this nation at that time, their physical freedom, but the new birth of freedom that was so much essential, it was a matter of impossibility for him to give them. Therefore, he called on GOD,
'that this whole nation under GOD might have a new birth of freedom, that the Government by the people, for the people and through the people might not perish from the earth.'
That is the purpose for which I came and that is what I AM doing. Therefore,
they should rejoice because I AM not a race! They should rejoice because I Am
not a creed, I Am not a color, and not bound by the barriers and limitations
of any other dogma; but I AM the fulfiller of that of which he requested, to
give them the new birth of freedom.
Without this new birth of freedom the government would perish as did Germany, the French Government, and as Japan, and as England came near perishing without our assistance. GOD is in the Land giving them a New Birth of Freedom, and it is plain to see England would have perished, that Government of Great Britain would have perished with all of its millions and millions of people and would have been subjected to the Nazis and the Fascists had it not been for America in Whom, in other words, GOD dwells and made HIMSELF a Dwelling Place herein, that HE might be called An American. The Russian Government would have perished, even the Russian Government, as did Poland and as Czechoslovakia and as the other small nations perished.
But because the request of Abraham Lincoln was a request in all sincerity, though it may have apparently been in simplicity at the time and unbelievable to be a prayer, in reality it was a prayer he was praying in heart and in mind. I heard him and I answered it. It is wonderful! wonderful! wonderful! But this government was untouched by such, of the new birth of freedom as exemplified and demonstrated among this people. This government by the people, and for the people, and through the people could not perish because they had the new birth of freedom documentally and theoretically if they did not have it in reality, then I was here to make it a living reality.
So the new birth of freedom was the great essential and the mystery, and it was and still is the significance of all the births that have been mentioned and of all of the freedoms of which we have been talking.
Therefore, the Day that was known as Freedom Day, celebrated on the first of February, was bespeaking of the freedom in reality that Abraham Lincoln gave them; but in speaking it was predicting and psychologically declaring it was another freedom that ONE would give them whereby they would all unite and be free from division, free from strife, free from confusion, free from races and creeds and colors and every other division among us that Government by the people, for the people and through the people might not perish.
(And with these last beautiful words our Beloved Savior drew this most profound Tearoom Talk to a close.)
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