Purified by the Death of Your Delusions

Tonight’s subject is about one’s delusions: “Purified by the Death of Your Delusions.” You may find it, well, I don’t say you will find it profound, no, but I’ve always felt that whatever is most profoundly spiritual is in reality most directly practical, and you’ll find this very practical. But, it does take us into other areas.

Possibly the most…if I could choose among the Beatitudes, I would choose the sixth, if I could choose. But it seems arrogant on anyone’s part to choose among the great Beatitudes. The sixth Beatitude is “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mat.5:8). This is a profound statement because man becomes what he beholds, and no man becomes God until he can see God. It’s God and God alone who unveils himself that man can see him. But it’s an everlasting expansion of the unveiling, as we are told so clearly in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, the 3rd chapter of 2nd Corinthians: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this is by the Lord who is the Spirit” (verse 18). So he unveils himself in our presence and we at that moment are transformed into the image of what we behold. We invariably become what we behold. The veil that we wear is this garment, and so he simply lifts it and exposes himself, and we behold him as we become him.

But, we are told there’s a condition imposed upon it. And you might think, can I meet the condition? Let me repeat it, the condition is: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” You might wonder which is the more difficult, the condition or the promise, purity of heart, or seeing God? Well, let me tell you from my own experience, God is infinitely merciful. He initiates the process by which you and I are purified. You could sit from now to the end of time and you couldn’t purify yourself. God initiates the entire plan of purification, and then devises the means by which we are purified. It happens so suddenly; you’ll never dream in eternity how it happens.

So let me share with you a story told to me this past year in the city of San Francisco, this past fall. He’s one perfectly marvelous chap. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the only child of parents who came here from Ireland, raised in a very rugged environment where he thought if he fought daily he was a man. Come home with bloody noses, black eyes, and he thought that was the way to live. He went through life that way. Then came the 2nd World War, and so he went off to war. He was a sergeant in this company and he found himself in New Guinea. The Japanese had pinned them down, the entire company was flat on their faces, dug in, and they couldn’t move. He said, “Neville, let me now make a confession. Raised in my limited environment, in an Irish environment in Boston, Massachusetts, I had two extreme hates in my life, not dislikes, hates: I hated Jews and I hated Negroes.” You can’t justify a prejudice, because you can’t. There’s no reason in God’s world why one should hate anything. But he hated; that was his confession.

He said, “I as a sergeant gave this Jew, who was a private, every dirty thing in the world to do when I was his superior. And here we are now pinned down in New Guinea by Japanese machine gun fire. We couldn’t move. If I barely raised my head I would feel on my steel helmet the bullets ricocheting off my helmet. You couldn’t budge; they had us completely pinned down. And this Jew to my left said to me, ‘Sarge, do you have any hand grenades?’ and I said yes, and I detached three from my belt, and could get them to him without being detected. And this Jew jumped up suddenly and completely wiped out the entire nest of Japanese snipers with their machine guns. He was severely wounded, but it wasn’t mortal. At that very moment, I overcame all of my prejudices for the Jew. All the walls of Jericho came tumbling down, all of these ancient evils in me collapsed. And then I understood that statement which I had read but I didn’t understand it before: You see these buildings and you’re so proud of them—as I was proud of my prejudices—I was an Irishman and I was Catholic, better than any other religion in the world, better than any person in the world, and all these were things that I hated. And then suddenly I remembered this statement: You see these buildings? Not one stone will be left standing upon another that will not be thrown down (Mat. 24:2). And the ancient prejudice, the ancient evil, crumbled within me, and I not only did not hate the Jew, I loved them. So when I came back to this country and worked myself into a position where I had my own business in masonry—bricks, mortar, everything that went into the building of a building using masonry I supplied in San Francisco—and the Jew got the first chance at any job available.”

“Then came something that happened by accident seemingly and some explosion took place in the factory and I am burning. My body is aflame, my overalls are burning, and all of the Caucasians in the place they didn’t rush to save me. A Negro rushed forward, threw me on the floor, rolled me over, and put it out, burning himself in the process. I was lit, burning, but he was burned. At that very moment, my hate turned to love. So today in my business in San Francisco, you want a job, you either must first be a Jew or a Negro. My hate turned into love. For I could not have plotted that, I couldn’t have planned it. It just happened that it happened this way.”

Well, I’ll tell you, it happened that way because God planned it that way. God became man that man may become God. There is nothing but God in this world. And so, when you sit there this night and you say “I am” that’s his name. That’s his great name, his only name. So, I am what? I am prejudiced? Alright, that’s the wall he is going to tear down. I am prejudiced against this, that or the other? He will bring it down. As he brings it down, he unveils himself at a certain level, and lifts your veil, and you behold him, and you become what you behold. So, as we are told: And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this is by the Spirit of the Lord who is the Spirit.

And so, don’t plot it, it’s going to happen. If tonight you’re prejudiced, may I tell you, you are not outside of salvation. God has plotted the way of salvation for you, and will place you into a situation just like this chap. His name is Bill Donovan…you can’t get a more Irish name…well, here is Bill, and today you couldn’t meet a nicer person. But to show you how he was really searching for God, when he came West he went alcoholic, with all of his prejudices, he went alcoholic, completely blind. He was searching for the Spirit and he saw the false spirit in the form of alcohol. He didn’t know it. And then he joined AA, and for the last dozen years Bill hasn’t touched a drop. Took me out to dinner, he knows I take a drink, he said, “Neville, you have all you want, but Becky and I (his wife) we never touch a drop. We both were AA and met in AA because of our problem.” I didn’t tell him then that he was searching. He knew it in the depth of his soul he was searching for God and saw God in some spurious form of alcohol. That’s really what it is; it’s simply another form. It’s spirit, the same word spirit, spirit is alcohol. And so, he was searching for it and saw it in a form that was false. And then, joined it, and now today you couldn’t in any way tempt him to take one little drop, he just doesn’t want it. But he overcame the prejudice and then all these things crumbled within him.

So I say, if today you are prejudiced, don’t be concerned. Everyone in this world is prejudiced, and these things are built around them that God may awaken. So you are placed into an environment where you don’t know it. He was brought into this little environment in Boston, surrounded with a certain prejudice, a hatred, and he grew into it. And then God placed him in a certain environment where the two he hated most were his saviors in this world. The Jew saved his entire company and the Negro saved his personal life, and today the two are the most employed in his very successful business. So I say it works this way. So don’t be, if you have it this night, don’t be concerned. God will plot it; God will plan it. The initiative for man’s salvation is with God, and, may I tell you, it isn’t prompted by any good deed that man has done. Man’s salvation is by grace and grace alone. No one can earn it. No one in this world is good enough to earn salvation. Salvation is becoming God: God became man that man may become God. And it’s a series of unveiling, unveiling, unveiling, where suddenly man awakens to find himself transformed: this finite, fallible being transformed overnight into an entirely different being. And yet, the veil has not been completely lifted…another veil, and still another veil, for Truth is an ever-increasing illumination. But, it is all man.

So here, man is purified by the death of his delusions. But listen to this carefully, for this is from the greatest, in my mind, the greatest mystic that ever walked the face of this Earth, William Blake. He claimed that the entire poem Jerusalem was dictated by God, so he claimed. I wouldn’t question Blake’s right to make that claim. He makes it not only in the poem itself but in his letters to his friends, and they’re all on record. Well, here is his statement, he claims it was dictated: “Then those in eternity who contemplate on death said thus.” Who are they in this great eternity who contemplate on death and what is the death on which they contemplate? May I tell you, the beings contemplating are those who said, “Let us make man in our image,” the Elohim, the gods. Let us make man in our image by the same process of unveiling ourselves; and because man becomes what he beholds, they’ll become us, as I unveil them, as they become pure in heart.

“And those in great eternity said thus…” and what did they say? They are contemplating on death. You might think of death when you see someone go into the grave. That’s not death—this is the grave. Everyone seated here seems so animate, so alive; these are the sepulchers of God. God is buried in every child born of woman, and that’s the grave that these in great eternity contemplate. “And those in great eternity who contemplate on death said thus.” Now listen to it carefully, what did they say? “What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, and despair, and eternal death; but Divine Mercy steps beyond and redeems man in the body of Jesus” (Jerusalem,Plt.36). And then the whole vision returns to its perfection: length, breadth, and height take on the original divine vision.

Come back to the statement that he is now saying. What did he say? “What seems to be.” To Bill Donovan, it seemed that a Jew was a coward and he proved himself the bravest of them all in New Guinea. To Bill Donovan what seemed to be, is, to those to whom it seemed to be: the Negro was below him in courage, and in intelligence, and in everything—and he was his savior. When no white man came to save him, the Negro walked forward, threw him on the floor, and rolled him over, burning himself in the process, and saved him. And he overcame at that very moment all hatred. So go back, “What seems to be, is, what it seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torment.” Wasn’t that torment? A man living with a prejudice, isn’t he tormented? Anyone in this world with a prejudice, isn’t he really living in hell? And doesn’t he despair, can’t get out of it? And it is eternal death… and they are contemplating on this eternal death. But, and this is our great comfort, the “Divine Mercy steps beyond and redeems man in the body of Jesus.” He plots a play by which man overcomes his prejudice, where the walls of Jericho fall and the ancient evils crumble. And suddenly, he can unveil you, and that moment he unveils you, you see him who unveils you, and you become what you behold, one step higher. And then another play, and still another play, and we go on forever and forever becoming God; for God actually limited himself to man; he became man that man may become God.

So all of us in this world are one; there’s only one. There’s only one God; there aren’t two Gods. As we’re told in Zechariah: “And the Lord will be king over all the earth; on that day his name will be one, and the Lord will be one,” only one. And he set up the only way in this world that he could reveal the oneness of us all. There is only one way that he could ever reveal that you and I are one. I answer to the name of Neville. You say “Neville” and I will say yes. Then all of a sudden I say “Charlie” and someone present, “Charlie,” you’ll say, yes, I’m here. And we seem so different, so distinct; and we are, we’re unique in the eyes of God as separate visions of God. And yet I tell you we are one, we’re actually one, because we’re all being unveiled as God.

God only has one Son, only one Son, and that one Son’s name is David. At the moment of the unveiling he unveils David, and then you see the relationship between yourself and David. And you look right into the eyes of David and he calls you Father; and you know, there’s no doubt in your mind of this relationship, we are father-son. You go back into the ancient scripture and you read that “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee” (Ps. 2:7). It’s to David these words are spoken. And you know in the depths of your soul every being in this world will one day be unveiled in the presence of David and David will call him Father. If David calls you Father, and he’s already called me Father, are we not one? There is no way in the world that God could ever reveal the unity of humanity save through a son. And so, “God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son,” not to walk with me as a friend but to reveal me to myself (John 3:16). God is unveiling himself in us: “For let us make man in our image.” If I am the image of him, and I am he, then I am the father of his son. He can’t make me less if he fulfills his purpose, and it’s God’s purpose to give himself to man; and so completely give himself to man that there is no one in the world, simply God and that man. And finally only that man: God completed the gift and he is God. So God becomes man that man may become God, and it’s the unveiling process. And the only way in the world he can reveal the gift is through his Son. So we are told: “No one knows who the Son is except the Father; and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Mat. 11:27). So when the Son chooses to reveal himself, the relationship is Son-Father. It will happen to every being in this world.

So, until it happens we have our prejudices, we have our superstitions, we have our grand buildings and we’re so proud of the buildings. But God sees the heart. So, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” We think a man because of his greatness in this world—he may be a very good soldier, a very good banker, a very good scientist, a very good and you name anything in this world, artist—and he need not be a good man. Well, God isn’t seeing the status symbol on the outside, with the medals on you because you are a good scientist; and maybe you’ll win the prize this year and get $50,000 from some great foundation, and the world will hail you because you did in the eyes of the world appear as a very good and great scientist. But God sees not the outward appearances; God sees only the heart. As we’re told in the 16th chapter of the Book of Samuel, 1st Samuel, and they brought before the prophet the first son of Jesse. And he said to himself, Surely this is the Lord’s Anointed—look at his height, look at the beauty, the greatness of this man. His name is Eliab: Eli means, my God, and Ab is father, so “my God is father,” and surely he is the Lord’s anointed. The Lord said to the prophet, “I have rejected him; for the Lord sees not as man sees; man sees the outward appearance, and God sees the heart” (16:7). Then he brings another; I’ve rejected him. He brings a third; I’ve rejected him. And he marches seven before him; I rejected them. And then comes David, he said, “Rise and anoint him.” So David was the anointed (16:12).

And then we come into the unfolding of the story. When Paul tells the story of David, he said, he put these words into the mouth of God, “Here is a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22). So here he sees a man after his own heart; and so, you behold David (you are he). David is his Son, yet you are his father. For listen to these words, “the Son of man, who is called the Son of God”…but the Son of God is also God the Son, don’t forget that. The Son of God is also God the Son, for “I and my Father are one.” So he sets up a Son, called David, and he is your son, therefore, you are his father—and the Father of David is God. But you are the one that he brought out of humanity called David. David symbolizes the whole vast world of humanity, and he draws you out, and reveals himself, glory after glory after glory. It’s himself being revealed.

So, as you are brought out you are the Son of God. Now listen to the words: “I will raise up after you your son, who shall come forth from your body. I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (2 Sam.7:12). So you’re brought forth as the Son of God; for the Son of God is also God the Son, one, “I and my Father are one”…“though my Father is greater than I” (John 10: 29,30). For the thing symbolized in this world is greater than the symbol. So, I come symbolizing him who unveiled himself before me, and then I became him. Then he sent me back into the world, once more encompassed in my prejudice; and then he will tear it down, and unveil himself with a still greater glory, and send me back again. For there’s no limit to the expansion of God unveiling himself in me, no limit. So Truth is an ever-increasing illumination, forever and forever. And every being in this world is one; there’s nothing but God. God and God alone became us that we may become God; and he had set up the means by which he unfolds it in this world.

So I know we are purified that we may see God through the death of our delusions. When someone has numberless delusions… what is a delusion? Well, the dictionary defines it as a mental error, a false belief; especially that belief that is persisted in, that when one goes through it becomes, that’s a fixation. Well, don’t despair. Love them dearly, because God has plotted the means by which he’s going to tear that building down. That building will crumble. Whether it be someone who thinks himself because he has a billion dollars he’s better than someone else, and there are those who have it, God will tear it down. And don’t despair when it crumbles. Someone who could not give them one penny to add to their fortune will be their savior; and then he sees that not the rich came to his support but the poor one. He will see. He may be prejudiced this day against rich people, you know. That’s a prejudice too. That comes down. You can be very, very poor and you may have a frightful prejudice against those who have things; and those who have things, have no reason to save you will save you. That’s how God plots it, that’s how he plans it.

I speak from experience. When my father had the blow of blows in Barbados and no one came to see him because he was accused, wrongfully, but accused. Those who were playing it safe…no one came home even to say “How are you feeling, Joe?” Joe sat alone. And a man came, a very wealthy man, a very prominent person socially, financially, intellectually. He came to Barbados for his health years ago and made a fortune. But he came out as a perfectly trained gentleman from England; he was cultured, he was a great athlete, he was a Blue at Cambridge, he had all that it took. He was the only one that came home to see my father, and he said to Daddy, “Well, Joe, what can I do?” Well, he said, “I have all these children to feed and the servants to feed and I have no money.” Well, he said, “What do you want to do?” He said, “All I know is simply what I’ve done before, a grocery business…just what I did before. I did a good business and I was falsely accused. They took everything from me by the false accusations, and if I had money I’d go back into the business and run it as I did before, successfully.”

He went back to his office and he said to his people, “Mr. Goddard will open up in the next month or so a business and I want you to extend credit to the limit. Whatever he orders you fill the order and no bill must be sent to him. When he has it he’ll pay.” And so, we opened up a little business and he stocked us to the tune of about $40-50,000 in merchandise. We had no money, and when we sold it we paid him. And when he died and his son took over, if his firm had a match to sell and it was a cent more per box than any competitor, don’t come near the Goddards. He and he alone sold us the match. And so, when, say five, six years ago, I know this much, they were doing with us in excess of $500,000 a year business. That was their initial investment. And so, if my father had any prejudice of the wealthy people of the world, for he had nothing as a boy, he certainly…that building collapsed and crumbled, that ancient prejudice, because one very wealthy, cultured gentleman came into his life and made it possible to once more start in a marvelous way.

So your prejudice need not be against a certain race or religion, it could be against wealth. Those who have none could be prejudiced against the wealthy and the wealthy may be prejudiced against something else, and it goes all over the world. These are the buildings spoken of in the 13th chapter of the Book of Mark, “You see these great buildings? I tell you not one stone will be left standing on the other but all will be thrown down” (verse 2). So, if today you have it, I know God has plotted and planned your redemption and no one will be unredeemed. And so, he will plot it and plan the scene by which the prejudice collapses in your presence and you fall in love with that formerly which you hated. And so, you actually fall in love with it.

And then eventually the whole veil is lifted and God’s only begotten Son calls you “Father.” You know, as he does it, you are not alone. He’s going to call every being in this world Father; therefore, really, you are one with every being in the world. Then you understand the poet: “All things by a law divine in one another’s being mingle.” All things by a law divine. So every being in this world is actually interwoven. And so, when Dunne wrote the words: “I am involved in mankind. Every man’s death is the death of me. Never send to ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for me.” You read that something happened today across the water and someone was killed violently, don’t ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for me. Well, I’m involved in mankind and every man’s death is the death of me. For there’s nothing but God buried in these graves in the world.

So “Those in great eternity who contemplate on death said thus”—and listen to it because it works in the most practical way on this level: “What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments and despair and eternal death.” Let us stop it there now. If it does this with torments and despair and eternal death, it will do it with joy and everything else in this world. So “What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be.” I wonder what the feeling would be like were I the man that I want to be? Suppose now that I had, and I name it, x-number of dollars a year…and I name it. All things being relative, suppose now I took just an outside figure, I had $35,000 a year. Well, living modestly as I do, wouldn’t that be wonderful, $35,000 a year! Well then, what seems to be, is, to those to whom it sees to be, and is productive of that which it seems to be. If I dare to assume that I am it and walk this earth just as though it were true, if I could live just as though it were true, then I would prove that statement.

Now Blake claimed that these words were dictated to him by the Spirit of love who is God. Blake makes that bold statement and I trust him implicitly, “What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be.” But could I persuade myself that I am what at the moment reason denies? I’m taking this word “delusion” in a different manner, because “delusion” is to entertain a false belief, well, could this now prove true? Well, when a man may have a false belief that the Jew is not his equal, and until this thing happened he acted so that he proved it to his own satisfaction; and when he did it to the Negro, did he not prove it to his own satisfaction? Well now, we take the same principle: What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and take it in a different light and prove it…though the whole thing will fade in the end. For in the end all will fade and only God remains. You will remain but everything else will go. All your buildings will collapse, whether they be made of gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or stubble. All will collapse, but you will remain, the builder.

So, I can now build using the same principle: What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be. Well, can I not assume that things are as I would like them to be, for myself, for you, for anyone else in the world? And as I do it…a friend of mine this night before I came on the platform, he said he’s been working on himself towards actually feeling the good of another. After all, he’s working with others…it’s up to him as a good man in his company to congratulate a salesman who brings in a big deal. But he said, “You know, in the past I must confess there was a certain envy on my part when I heard of a great sale on the part of another. I wanted to congratulate her or congratulate him, but I couldn’t deny in my heart I wish I had done it. But when I could really let go and sincerely mean it, and say…I’m doing it all in my mind’s eye; I didn’t do it physically, I did it in my mind’s eye, and really felt it. This past week a lady comes in having closed a $50,000 contract.” Now, he said, “I know that’s a tremendous amount of money for her, and I said to her, thrilled, I am not envious, I am thrilled that she could close that deal. In the past there was a reservation, I wish I had done it, and so my congratulations were not completely from the heart to the point where I was really pure in heart.” But now he knows.

You can congratulate every being in this world for every good thing they do, because it’s yourself. There’s only one in this world, only one God, and one God became the seeming many. The stone became fragmented into unnumbered parts with different pigments. Some wear white pigments, some red pigments, black pigments, brown pigments; but only one in this world, all fragmented. And in the end, the Lord will be one and his name one. And may I tell you, that name, although the grand name is I AM, which is called Jesse, there is another name given to it, a glorious name, and that name is Jesus Christ. People don’t believe it, but that name is Jesus Christ. It is I AM, granted, but if you read the story carefully he reveals the grand I AM—“I am the door, I am the true vine, I am the way, I am the life, I am the truth, I am the resurrection”—it’s the same grand I-am-ness, but the name is a glorious name, and the name is Jesus Christ. Don’t make a fetish of it, for he became you, he’s unveiling himself in you, and when he completely unveils himself you are Jesus Christ. That’s the story.

Now let us go into the Silence, and let us believe that what seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be. And may I suggest that this night you take the most glorious concept of yourself, I don’t care what it is, make it bigger than you now even hoped to realize, because all things are possible to God. Whatever is your present ambition make it a noble ambition but make it bigger; and then try to persuade yourself, as we go into the Silence, that it is true. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled, and then view the world from that assumption—that you can see reflected on the faces of these imaginary friends that expression which implies that they see in you the man that you are assuming that you are. Now let us go.

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Now first, may I call your attention to the book table. As you know, every book on that table I recommend. My books are there, my friend Freedom Barry’s is there; any book on that table has my endorsement. And so, may I call your attention to it. On the way out please stop and look them over If you have one and you want to share your good fortune with another if you loved it, then you may get one for a friend.

Now, are there any questions, please? Yes, sir.

Q: (inaudible)

A: To repeat the quote, it is The Gospel of Thomas from the Apocrypha where man believes or women are taught to believe that they are secondary. Women are not secondary, because man is not a male and man is not a female. Man wears the garment of male and female, but man is the image of God. And so, no one knows man; man is the wearer of these garments, male and female. So as we are told in Timothy, “Woman will be saved by the bearing of the child.” Not bearing children, as priesthoods the world over have tried to convey to womanhood…that’s bearing children. Everyone in this world will one day go through a certain mystical experience who is now wearing the garment of female, where they will actually find and feel themselves male; and then, they will also know that they are man, wearing that garment. I speak from experience. Man in the resurrection is above the organization of sex, in the resurrection. We are told, that question was put to him in the most marvelous manner: Master, Moses in the law said that if a man marries, and dies leaving no issue, and has brothers, the brothers should marry his wife to raise up issue for the brother who died. Well, there were seven brothers, and the first one married, and died leaving no offspring. The second took her, and he died leaving no offspring, and the third, fourth; and finally seven of them married her, and they left no offspring. Whose wife is she in the resurrection? And he said, You do not know the scripture, for “the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age, to the resurrection from the dead, they neither marry nor are they given in marriage…for they are sons of God, and sons of the resurrection” (Luke 20:28-36).

We’re being prepared here to enter a new age altogether, where we don’t need the relationship of male-female. It’s a brotherhood, where we create out of our own wonderful Imagination. Everything is subject to our imaginative power. We don’t need the divided image of male-female. We are man; and man is not a male, and man is not a female, because man is God. You’re looking at his face, yes…to me when I looked into the face as it was unveiled before me, it’s man, granted, but above the organization of sex. So, that book is not included in our canon but it’s a glorious book. And I’ll say to every lady, I know that my mother, my wife, my daughter, and all the ladies that I know in this world will one day confront David as David’s father, not David’s mother. He has no mother. And so, the most scholarly of all Biblical criticism is the Encyclopedia Biblica, and that gives no mother to David. And the manuscripts, the oldest known manuscripts mention no genealogy outside of a father whose name is Jesse. And the word “Jesse” is any form of the verb “to be”—I AM, that’s what it means. So, “Whose son are you? I am the son of your servant Jesse” (1 Sam. 17:58). In other words, I am the son of I AM. He comes out of me, and so he looks at me, well, I am his father; therefore, he’s the son of the being that I am…whoever I am. So when they said, “What shall I say?” “Just say I AM who I AM” (Ex. 3:14). He didn’t say what it is…I am what I am, I am that I am, I am what I will be. So, he turns to me and calls me Father, and so he is the son of the being that I am, whatever that being is. So that’s the name. No mother, just the father. So every being in this world, male or female, will one day have the experience, the thrill of thrills, to be called Father by God’s only begotten Son (Ps. 2:7). And then he will know that he’s God. There’s no other way to know he’s God unless the Son reveals it, for no one will know the Father unless the Son reveals him. So he tells us in the 14th of John, “No one comes unto the Father save by me.” Any other questions, please?

Q: Your idea then is purification consists in ridding oneself of delusions?

A: Yes, yes sir, definitely. And yet, as I said, if it is a very difficult thing, don’t despair. God has plotted and planned the way that that building, that ancient prejudice, will crumble. He will put you into the position where the one that represents that prejudice will be your savior, as it was in my friend’s case, Bill Donovan. And Bill today, you couldn’t meet a nicer person. You could hardly believe that he was that violent creature who fought all over Boston, and thought it marvelous to be always fighting, coming home with black eyes and all kinds of things. He thought that’s the way that one should live—to prove yourself a man you must fight all day, so go into the street and fight. If he found a Negro, he would fight, if he found a Jew, he would fight, and come home to his mother with a black eye. But she was just as prejudiced as he because they were the best. First of all, they were Irish and they were Catholic. Well, you can’t get any better in the environment of the Irish Catholic; that’s part of the setup. So he had to prove to himself that that’s not really God’s only begotten child…that everyone is. And so, this thing happened to him. But he was big enough to tell me. For one night in San Francisco, last spring, I was talking on how man overcomes these strange delusions, and I was using stories. Then he said to me after the meeting, “Neville, are you free for dinner tomorrow?” I said I dine very early because I take the platform at 7:30. Well, he said, “I’ll eat as early as you. You want to make it five?” I said yes. So he and Betty and I went off to a very lovely French restaurant, and then he told me this story, told me this perfectly marvelous story. When you meet Bill, you couldn’t meet a sweeter, kinder person. His story is the one I told here the other day. He went off to Mexico, the boat went off to sea, and he re-enacted the scene as though it were now anchored safely on the beach. And then he plunged in, bravely, into this ocean, and here he is going to drown when suddenly a wave lifted him up, and he sees a boat that should not be in the area with three men aboard. He screams on the crest of the wave and they came and that’s Bill. So you see, everyone is not only redeemable, everyone will be redeemed….they got him, took him out to sea, and brought back the little boat that was drifting away.

So this moral purity is not sexual, having to do with moral perfection. Because, the word “pure” in Semitic speech includes mind and emotion, and has no reference whatsoever to sexual morality or any moral perfection, none. It’s a prejudice that God is seeing. Because, who is going to lay down the foundation of what is right sexually? What person in this world would dare to set himself up as the criterion of what is the right thing from a sexual point of view? To those who become celibate, either because nature made them that way, or they thought they could obtain the kingdom of heaven by becoming emasculated, and there are others who go through other forms of it—but it hasn’t anything to do with any moral or sexual perfection, because, who is going to set up the standard? It isn’t that at all. It’s this strange, peculiar delusion that is a prejudice, a fixed, fixed false idea that will crumble. And God will see that it will crumble. As it crumbles he unveils himself. As he unveils himself, you become the one that you behold, so that’s one more glory you are. So read it carefully in the 3rd chapter of 2nd Corinthians, I think it’s the 18th verse, that wonderful unveiling of God, from one glory to another. And this is done by the Spirit, so no one can brag, no one can boast, because it’s God and God alone who plots and plans the whole thing. In the end, we’re all one. What a play! What a glorious play! That’s why the cry at the very end, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do” (Luke 23:32). They don’t know because we are completely veiled.

But you take tonight’s story: “What seems to be, is,” believe me, “to those to whom it seems to be” whether we are prejudiced or you dream of good fortune. You dream of lovely fortune? What seems to be, is…believe it! I’m from a background where I’m a son of one who didn’t have two pennies to rub together, and ten children to feed, and a wife, and himself, and a mother-in-law, and servants in the house, and not two pennies. But, “What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be.” So when he died five years ago, he could leave quite a fortune to his children. So that the speaker, if he so desired, need not work, if he so desired. But I’d rather drop dead this night than not do what I’m doing. The day that I’m not doing what I am doing don’t let me just live on what he gave me, let me make my exit tonight. Perfectly alright, I know exactly where I’m going. But to remain here just because I could afford to eat and vegetate, I don’t want that. I want to be here as long as I can do it. But the day I can’t do it, just let me not vegetate; let me make my exit from this world. But he left me all that it takes to live graciously in this world of Caesar without raising a finger. Goodnight.