God Plays All the Parts

God plays all the parts…I mean that literally. Moses said, “When I go to the people of Israel and they ask me who sent me, what shall I say?” The Lord answered, ‘Say I AM has sent me unto you. This is my name forever and thus I am to be known throughout all generations.’ So just imagine my return home and I said to my wife, “You know the play we saw last week?” and she remembered vividly. I said, “I have invited the entire cast to supper, so let’s get ready to receive them.” So we made ourselves busy and we got all the things ready for a lovely party after the theater is closed tonight. But as they arrive, I take it for granted that my wife knows them. She doesn’t know them and so she will say, being the perfect hostess, “I am Mrs. Goddard and now tell me who you are?” He replies, “I am the author of the play.” “I am the hero of the play.” “And who are you?” “I am the villain.” “And who are you?” “I am the accused in the play.” “And you?” “I am the accuser…I am the judge…I am the maid…this, that and the other.” She then turns and says, “I have seen you all and loved you. But I don’t recall having seen you, who are you?” “I am the stagehand.” “You?” “I am behind the scenes, too, I’m the carpenter…I am the light man…I am the soundman.” Everyone declared himself to be God before he gave the name of the mask that he is wearing. He played all the parts.339 ¶1

The author and everything conceived was himself…everything he conceived was himself. Tonight when you go home, do me a favor. I presume you have a Bible—read the 12th chapter of Job. The deceiver and the deceived are his. He takes the king and tears down all that he has, and then wraps a loincloth around him. He strips the priest. He brings the lowly down. He builds up the nation and tears it down. He does everything! And Job is wondering what have I done to deserve this? Would you number my iniquities? I ask you to number my iniquities. Why do you hide your face from me? He says, this is my salvation; for he knows that the ungodly man cannot stand before God and he doesn’t feel himself guilty of anything of which he is accused. So he knows, I will come before the Lord and this is my salvation. Why do you hide your face as though I were an enemy? Because he knows that when he comes before God and God looks into his face, God can see no other than himself, he can’t.339 ¶2

So let me share with you a wonderful experience that came to me through the mail. In fact, I have many to share with you tonight. This lady writes—and God speaks to man, by the way, through the medium of dream and through the medium of vision—“I heard the lecture on the 22nd day of November, and that was on motion, ‘Are You an Occupant or Inmate?’ Then you told the story of your friend who had learned how to move. So that night I assumed as I went to sleep that I am fully awake. That was exactly what I want to experience…I am completely awake. So I moved into that state and as I fell asleep I heard these words: ‘You are the apple of my eye.’ and it kept on over and over. I replied, yes I know that is scripture. I heard Neville talk about that, oh, a long, long time ago. And the voice continued, ‘You are the apple of my eye.’ So I awoke and wrote it down; that is my custom to do that. I said to myself as I wrote it down, ‘Maybe that is not quite the thing.’ So I went back to sleep, trying to gather it together.”339 ¶3

The word apple in Hebrew means “the little man reflected in the pupil of the eye.” Look into the pupil of any person’s eye in this world and whom do you see? You can only see yourself. If I ever came before the face of God—that is what he’s asking for—this is my exoneration. Why do you hide your face? If I could only come before your face, you would know how innocent I am. You will look into my eye and you will see only yourself. So in this 12th chapter he said, all power, all wisdom are his. The deceived and the deceiver are his, there is no other; so I look into the eye of the deceiver and whom do I see?—myself. I look into the eye of the deceived and who do I see?—I see only myself. There is no one in this world, if you see clearly, other then your self. There is no one.339 ¶4

God plays all the parts. Then she said, “Two nights later, as I fell asleep I heard these words, ‘In God there is no black or white, Jew or Christian’ and it kept on repeating it over and over. So I got up and wrote it down. Again I said, ‘That is scripture, but it is not quoted accurately’…but I could not recall the accurate quote. So I went back to bed, struggling to find out the right quotation. As I did so, the same voice came, ‘In God there is no black or white, no Jew or Christian’ and suddenly our Ben appeared.” Now I’m going to ask Ben to rise. “Our Ben appeared and Ben said to me, ‘I am not this black skin that you see, I am God.’ Then he vanished and my next door neighbor”—she calls her Frieda—“she appeared. She said, ‘I was born into the Jewish faith but I am God.’” And then she woke.339 ¶5

Here, I AM not black or white, I am not Christian or Jew, I AM.339 ¶6

Well, next day came another letter…I will not go through the entire thing. This friend writes, “In my dream I had this experience concerning the black. I saw this black, black young Negro, the blackest Negro you could ever see, and he was so scared, so frightened. Then came a woman, she looked to me like a Spanish woman. She had on a leather riding skirt, a black hat and a quirt fastened to the wrist. A quirt is simply a whip and you fasten it to the wrist. It’s really braided leather, that’s really what it is, a whip. And she walked over towards this man who was so scared and so frightened, and without emotion she flayed him. I protested. I rose from where I was and went forward to protest this awful unmerciful beating and a voice said to me, ‘That is how we move from darkness to light.’”339 ¶7

She knew that it was all symbolism! Not a Negro becoming a white person or vice versa…but from darkness to light. In the same 12th chapter of Job, the 16th verse, I think, you will see it: “the deep darkness to light.” You read it in the 26th chapter of Acts, when the risen Christ appears, “Why do you persecute me?” Paul answered, “Who are you?” “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” And then he sends him to open the eye of those who are in darkness and lead them from darkness to light.339 ¶8

Then comes another letter, all in the same week, and in her letter she said, “I came to a rummage sale and all kinds of gifts where there, jewelry and watches, and I wanted a watch. I looked over all the watches, but they were old and ugly, so I wasn’t interested. Then I saw one, and it was an odd watch, and I thought that would be all right…but I declined it, put that back. Then I walked upstairs to a higher level, and there I found a watch, a blue enamel watch, a lovely watch. I thought I’d take it. I came downstairs with it and then I decided that I wouldn’t take it. Then the clerk said to me, ‘I found many other gifts that came in when I went upstairs, other new gifts came and they were lovely gifts, much lovelier than the other gifts.’ The clerk said to me, ‘Look at these perfumes’ and then she said, ‘Neville donated this one.’ She said, ‘Well, if Neville donated that one I’ll take it!’ And then she looked me right in the eye and said, ‘If you look into it, it will heal your eyes.’ I woke, hoping that Neville’s perfume would open my spiritual eye.”339 ¶9

Well, the word perfume in Hebrew is simply “a fragrance that is produced by fire…like burning incense. It’s burned in a very close room which then empties the room of its occupants.” So if blindness occupies your world and this is lit by the fire of the Spirit, it empties the darkness of that room. Whatever is now possessing you that shouldn’t, any limitation, any poverty, anything, if you look into it, it will simply act like that fragrant perfume in the closed room and empty the occupant that should not be there. So he opens up the eye and leads them from darkness to light.339 ¶10

So here, I say God plays all the parts. No Negro becomes a white man or white man a Negro, because God is playing both parts. Everything in a dream is a symbol. But in this world, this is a waking dream…and this is a waking dream and this is a symbol, too. Everything is a symbol, so that no one is moving from a little worm into manhood as evolutionists teach. Evolution belongs only in, I would say, in the affairs of man. Instead of shooting a man with an arrow we now blow up a million with a hydrogen bomb, so he has evolved the means of mass destruction. That is evolution in the affairs of man. Instead of simply plowing it with a hoe, he now plows it with a tractor that is now driven, and tomorrow it will be with some nuclear energy. The means of transportation, instead of walking across the country and then riding a horse across the country, he now flies, and tomorrow he’ll go by almost the speed of light. That’s all evolution in the affairs of man. But the little bird builds its nest today as it did in the beginning of time. In God’s creation there is no evolution. Everything is but a symbol of God awakening.339 ¶11

So when in your wonderful dream…and God speaks to you every moment of time, either in the dream of the night or the waking dream. And so when Ben grows—and “Ben” is “the child of fortune,” that’s what Ben means. We find throughout the Bible the benediction, the descent of the Spirit upon man, which is the descent of the dove. That is the benediction of the dove, at last, when it comes upon the individual. When man, being the ark of God containing everything, but nothing is outside of the ark, and when the dove returns and Noah sticks his hand out and the dove descends upon the hand; and he brings it in, and the dove smothers him with kisses, and he takes it into himself, the Spirit enters.339 ¶12

Having been sent out, he returns, the flood being over. What flood?—the flood of illusion. Buried in all the illusions round about us, and we think them so real, they are all symbols screaming at us, trying to tell us to awake. And when man begins to awake, and the flood begins to subside, the dove returns and the dove comes and lights upon his hand; then he takes him into himself, the ark of God.339 ¶13

So I tell you the little story concerning the play is a true story. This one, who are you? I am the author. And who are you? I am the hero, I am the villain, I am the accused, I am the accuser, I am the judge, I am the warden, I am the jailor. Every one called God’s name first before he put the mask upon him. Everything in the world is God, nothing but God.339 ¶14

My old friend, Abdullah, years ago, one night—we never had more than fifteen, sixteen at any one time; if we got twenty we were most fortunate—he said, “Suppose now your mother, the one you love dearly, (who doesn’t love their mother), and if your mother now, and you could actually see her eyes, the real mother wearing the mask that you love, you embrace that mask and you love it. But suppose now that she was the fairest, blue-eyed, blonde in the world…” and Ab looked at me, for in the class most of us were Negroes, not more than four of us who were Caucasian. He looked at me and said, “Suppose now the mother you love so dearly, and she is blonde and blue-eyed and very fair of skin, suppose you saw her rise and then she went over and you saw her buried in that very dark, black person. Could you embrace that black, black person knowing the occupant of it is the one you so dearly loved?” Well, I must confess it was a shock to the entire class.339 ¶15

Abdullah taught that way. He taught by shocking. He always demonstrated everything, which I don’t do from the platform because it would embarrass many of you. Everything he did, he did it with a physical gesture that would really shock. But you can do it in words without using your hands and other members of the body to demonstrate. But he would use all parts of the body to demonstrate passages of scripture to show the unity and oneness of God. He always began the meeting, “Praise be unto that unity that is our unity.” Always, the oneness of us all! No matter what we appear to be on the surface, we are all one.339 ¶16

And so, I tell you, God is one…there is nothing but God. He is playing all the parts in the world. So when this lady had the experience “you are the apple of my eye,” you find it first in the 32nd of Deuteronomy. He is speaking to Jacob whom he found in the wilderness and he surrounded him and cared for him and then said, “You are the apple of my eye,” for when God looked into his eye, he could only see himself. So when the eye is open so that it can reflect and really reflect the beholder, then he sees himself…and he always embraces himself. So Job is crying out, do not hide your face from me. Let me see your face, number my iniquities, tell me what I have done that is wrong. What have I done to warrant this? Why do you hide your face as though I were an enemy? Show me your face.339 ¶17

If I could see the face of God I would have my salvation, for he would not look upon the ungodly. We are told in the Sermon on the Mount, “And who shall see his face—who but the pure in heart will see his face?” May I tell you, the pure in heart is not something you and I must work for and cry for. I am convinced from my own personal experience that this coming before God—I can’t understand why I was drawn there—so my fitness for the kingdom of God is the consequence not the condition of his grace. I certainly was not pure in heart. I certainly was not anything I would say worthy of that call, but I knew as I came before him and stood in his presence, of the risen Christ, when he looked into me he could see no one but himself. I returned…the prodigal son had returned. But, I returned because he called me. Everything springs from God: We love because he first loved us. We come because he first called us. Everything comes from God. So I in my distress, playing the part of the prodigal son, I certainly did not earn the right to come into the presence of God. But in a way not yet explained he opened the eye so it reflected. And I came into the presence by his call and so when he looked into my eye and asked a simple question, it was so obvious, the answer, for I am looking at the answer…that God is love. Then he embraced me and we fused and became one; and he raised my lowly body, at that moment, to be one with his wonderful, glorious body. But certainly I did not earn it. So I can’t say to anyone that you can earn it. Paul asked a question, “Did you earn it? Then why do you brag and why do you boast?” If you earned it, you could boast, but you didn’t earn it.339 ¶18

Only hope that the grace of God will come upon you soon! So you can just simply hope. And no one can tell you how close you are to it. But from my experience and from the visions that are coming, I’d say that so many of us are so close. And I personally am waiting eagerly for this benediction of a dove on a friend of mine, who has already had three of the visions. He feels he isn’t so near, but I feel it is so near, and I think we have both forgotten the time interval between the last and the coming dove. He didn’t date his letter and I didn’t date it when I received it. Should have, but that’s also scripture, “He comes like a thief.” Had I dated it, I’d be calling to tell him it is tonight…and you don’t do that. I will come in my own good time and no one will know…it will come so suddenly. But I have a feeling it is not far off, it is almost upon us.339 ¶19

I eagerly await the benediction of the dove. When it returns and the flood is over, all the illusions are gone, and then the eye is completely open.339 ¶20

And when the eye is open, you sleep but you don’t sleep. I woke on Dec. 1st from an experience I was having in San Francisco, entertaining a small group which I always do when I go there and which I will be in January, and I was explaining that you are not really seeing the being that I really am. They said, “Well, I’m seeing the being that I know.” I said, “No, you’re not. Even now, this very moment the mask that I wear you know, and it resembles the one you touched last year, but this is not the same mask. It’s a different mask, but resembles that mask.” And then this lady, her name is Jo Craig, said, “Neville, whenever I think that I understand you, you lose me. Just as I think that I really understand you off you go and now you lost me. Here you stand before us and tell me that what I’m seeing is not what I saw last year. I understand it is something that covers you and the being that you really are I don’t see. But don’t tell me this is not the same being that I saw last year.” I said, “No, it’s not the same being. The being you saw last year I left on a bed at home in Los Angeles.” She said, “No, that’s altogether silly.” I said, “All right. Good night.” and vanished and I woke on my bed in Los Angeles. I was as awake as I am here now, just as awake. I knew exactly what I was doing. I could see Jo before me and she was simply the same lovely, gracious lady that she is, and she said, “I think I have got him now, exactly where I had him, I now understand him completely. Now he tells me this is not what I saw last year, that I didn’t touch this body last year.”339 ¶21

So I tell you, God plays all the parts. There is nothing but God. So whether he be a thief, a murderer, the judge who judges and condemns them, the jailor who will put them in, the warden who will watch, everything is God. Do me a favor and don’t sleep before you read the 12th chapter of Job. In fact, the whole Book of Job is the book of man. But from the 13th verse to the 25th, read it from the 13th through. And then, of course, you’ll get so excited that you’ll read the 13th chapter. And the whole thing is so altogether fantastic…his plea to see the face of God, because he knows the ungodly can’t stand in his presence. Because the moment you stand, though you were ungodly, the minute he can see himself reflected in your eye, the apple of his eye, then he embraces you.339 ¶22

He embraces himself and therefore you cease to be the ungodly at that moment, and you are one with the risen Christ who is God. You dwell upon it. Everything in this world is yours for the taking. You take it by a mere assumption. A mere assumption, that’s all that you do. You dare to assume that you are the man that you would like to be and sleep in the assumption that it is really so, and see what happens. Because every being in the world is yourself, and they all play the parts that you are now enacting, and everyone who will aid the birth of this assumption will aid it, you don’t have to ask them because you are playing all the parts. If it takes a thief to do it, the thief will do it.339 ¶23

What man can actually look back at his fortune and know in his heart that only so-called honest men did it? Do you think any great wealth in this world could actually stand the shock if they knew how it happened…the wealth that he has? Start with the kings and emperors of the world. If they knew what went into the fortunes which they now enjoy…and coming down to the great financial barons of the world. Of course, we justify it by putting on blinkers. We say that it is marvelous to have all this money. We become so holy. But God isn’t fooled. So in the end he calls us one by one. And then one can look back upon their past and see the whole vast world as their play…and the horrors of it all. But in the end all is forgiven: “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do”.339 ¶24

So these wonderful experiences that have been coming in for the past two weeks, I can’t thank you enough for sharing them with me that I in turn may share them with everyone who is here…for we are all waking. And in the end, all the wisdom of the world will be as nothing. So Job in this chapter makes the statement, “The power and the wisdom are his.” Well, who is the power and wisdom? Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians, “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” So then what is this power and wisdom Job speaks of? Then he tells us the deceived and deceiver are his—the same creative power created the deceiver as the author does and created the deceived as the author does. And God the author is playing all the parts!339 ¶25

My very dear friend who is my partner, Grace Griffith, she and Jack were home a few years ago when this series appeared on TV on Sunday afternoon. It was simply the great ages of man, the kings of England. I can’t recall if it was Richard III…and lovely words would come out of his mouth as Gielgud would now explain them. And Grace said to me quite innocently, “You see, they were not really that evil at all.” I said, “Grace, my darling, Shakespeare said that.” “Oh, yes, yes, Neville.” One second later, “You see, they were not so bad at all.” I said, “Grace, dear, Shakespeare said it.” “Yes, yes, yes.” And so it went on and on and on, and she forgot one second later, she forgot it was Shakespeare doing the whole thing.339 ¶26

So Hamlet said to his mother, “Assume a virtue if you have it not.” Who said it? Shakespeare said that. What Hamlet? Was Shakespeare present to hear what the Dane said? Was he present to hear what Caesar said? Everything is in the mind of whoever the Shakespeare is. So you want to blame someone, blame God—he played all the parts—because he gave me Christ, gave me his creative power, to use or misuse. He gave me the wisdom to either use or misuse, for he gave me Christ and Christ is the power and wisdom of God. Christ is and he lies as in a seed in the soul of every man. And that little seed unfolds and it is called “being formed in man.” So “I will labor with you until Christ be formed in you.” So here he is, he lies as in a seed in the soul of every man in the world so man can breathe. Man can actually create, but what? He doesn’t write a letter or maybe he can’t even write, but he can imagine and he creates. He creates all the strange things, fantastic gods, and does it whether he be in this form or that form or the other form.339 ¶27

One day, having played all and suffered all, the risen Christ calls him and sees reflected in his eye himself. Then he has played it all. What more can he play? And he embraces him…the return of the prodigal son. Whether he is black when he comes back or whether he is white when he comes back or whether he is Oriental when he comes back, when he is embraced he is one with the risen Christ. Don’t ask me to describe or define the being that is the risen Christ. It defies description…can’t tell…yet it is human but all love embracing everyone. So no black man is moving from the black to the white, and white to some other color. It’s all symbols; everything here is a symbol. So your dream is a symbol and the waking dream is a symbol, too.339 ¶28

Ab used to tell us, “You know, if you only understood. You can get on a bus and you can count them…”—he and I would sit in the park together and he would watch people go by, counting, a lady and two gentlemen or maybe two ladies and a gentleman…and maybe three birds flying by…and it all meant something. He tried to explain to me the symbology of what is passing by, that two ladies and a gentleman would differ from two gentlemen and a lady. Get into a bus and as you enter you can tell the future of the ride by the people who entered. The whole thing to him was simply the language of God, and not one of them entered by accident or departed by accident. The whole thing was God unfolding, screaming his language to everyone, but he has ears but they are not yet opened and he has eyes but cannot yet see. Everything in the world is talking to man and there is only God.339 ¶29

So the greatest commandment…just imagine 613 commandments. The rabbis have calculated 365 prohibitions and 248 positive plans. And Jesus reduced it to two, quoting the 6th chapter of Deuteronomy and the 19th of Leviticus, and put these two into one command. He did say there were two, for he said this is the first when he as asked, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The [...] of the word Lord is I AM. “Hear, O Israel”—and the word Israel means “to rule as God.” That’s what the word means, to rule as God. Jacob, who was the apple of his eye, was called Israel after he succeeded in wrestling with God. He renamed him from Jacob to Israel. So here, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord”—that is, the I AM—“our God”—it’s a plural word, Elohim, our I AMs—“is one I AM”…this compound unity. So all of us gathered together form one I AM. That’s the first command. Now love it with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. This is the second: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.339 ¶30

He takes 613 commands and reduced to two, and tells us there is no need for any other. And always remember that all the I AM’s—the blacks and the whites, the yellows, the thieves, those who are stolen from and those who stole, those who sell and those who buy—all the I AM’s are one I AM. Always remember it! I am looking into my world and seeing the whole vast world pushed out. It is myself pushed out. Now love this center being, my own I AM—it’s all one—with all of my heart, with all of my soul, with all of my mind, with all of my strength. Now the second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. Well, why?—he is yourself!339 ¶31

When something happens…like this simple little story. In New York City, this man came [...] into my apartment and said he came from San Francisco and that he was here and a paycheck wouldn’t come for another two weeks and he couldn’t pay the rent. He was only paying four dollars a week and he said, could I help him out to pay the rent? I said, “How much do you need?” He said, “Just ten dollars.” I said, “Could you use twenty dollars?” He said yes, so I gave him twenty and off he went. Well, he is one of the phonies. I was deceived and he was the deceiver. So the next lecture night he came to my meeting and my wife was there. He didn’t know who she was and said, “What does a nice lady like you…what are you doing here?” I had described the man to my wife and she said to him quite innocently, “I’m here to protect my husband. He happens to be on the platform.” He ran down that stairway like a dart. He had faced the wife of the one that he had deceived. I know what happened…well, what show on Broadway could have given one more amusement than this fellow, all this to get twenty dollars? He only wanted ten; I gave him twenty. He only really wanted ten. He spent one hour of his time and my time to get ten dollars. With that intelligence he could have put it to work and made a fortune. But no, so that’s how it is. He came in just as my wife said to “case the joint” to see what lady he could touch. [...] the entire field to see if he could now get another for ten or twenty or fifty dollars. Well, that’s his life.339 ¶32

Who is playing it? I am playing it. When I realized the humor of it all, what would be twenty dollars? It’s so funny. So you kiss the twenty dollars goodbye and you had an experience. Then you must learn, forgive him, Father, he knows not what he does because you made him play it. Because he is our very being playing it and he is playing it. One day when you become the Father and know who the Father is, he’s playing it, played all these things, haven’t you played it? You haven’t asked someone for ten dollars that you didn’t pay back, but you’ve deceived, you’ve deceived unnumbered times. So you are the deceiver and the deceived, and the whole vast world is yourself pushed out. So I say and I say it advisedly and I mean it literally, God plays all the parts.339 ¶33

In the end the Elohim, the compound unity, all of us, are gathered together and then the Lord, the I AM, explains in detail the meaning of it all. And then from then on we go into a far, far greater, I would say, breaking of the primal rock into a greater play. That’s the challenge, that’s the joy. We don’t want to simply return and last forever having played the play. We don’t want that, we want a more marvelous play, following this that we may be more translucent [...], more expansive, and greater and greater. That’s how God [...]. So the One is ever increasing, expanding beyond the wildest dreams, by condensing and fragmenting himself; then gathering all together into the same One. And no one has lost his identity. I know from my own experience you do not lose your identity, yet you include the far greater Self, which is none other than God the Father.339 ¶34

Now let us go into the Silence.339 ¶35

* * * …plus something that I hadn’t printed before called The Resurrection. That forms the fifth book of the five. You have four that were formerly out of print, and then Resurrection. And I do hope that you will read that Resurrection over and over. I’m not saying that it is the easiest thing to grasp the first time. Every word of it is true. It’s all true. I’ve only told you my own experience and you read it and let it seep in. For what they told in the gospels, they are relating their own experience. I stand to witness with them…the same experience.339 ¶36

Any questions?339 ¶37

Now, our next meeting is on a Tuesday of next week. Thank you.339 ¶40

Note: Grace and Jack Griffith were a husband-and-wife team who operated G. & J. Publishing in Hollywood. They managed the book table in the lobby of Grauman’s Chinese Theater and were closely involved with the Science of Mind community that met there, assisting authors by featuring and promoting metaphysical books.339 ¶41