There Is No Evil

The prophet Amos asked this question: Does evil befall a city unless the Lord has done it? And there is no — well, there’s only one Creator in the world. By him all things were made, and without him was not anything made that was made. For that evil befall a city unless the Lord has done it — in a matter of hours a city is wiped out by a typhoon followed by the usual tidal wave, and we wonder why the Lord did it.1126 ¶1

For who is the Lord? You should study the scriptures carefully, you’ll find out who did it. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt within us. Aren’t you wearing a robe dipped in blood? That is the robe — this garment of flesh is the robe that the Word of God wears. And the Word of God is God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So the Word spoken of in scripture is seated right here in a garment dipped in blood, and that being seated here is your own wonderful human imagination.1126 ¶2

God and man are inseparable, because God is man and exists in us and we in him. The eternal body of man is human imagination — that is God himself. So whether it be the typhoon that wiped out two hundred thousand in a matter of hours, or the long weekend that took over seven hundred lives in our country — in this wonderful weekend, for it is all Thanksgiving and all a joyful state — it is still done by the Lord.1126 ¶3

So when Amos asked the question, he answered it: evil befall a city unless it has been done by the Lord. So one must know who the Lord is, and the Lord is our own wonderful human imagination. Therefore you and I have the identical — you want to call God a talent, but not all of us — trust me — not all of us cultivate the identical God, for God is one and his name is one. But you might trust the Lord — do I cultivate the Lord? All we have to do, if I really accept the Lord as my own wonderful human imagination, is to work it out — work up my own imagination to the state of vision, and then the thing is done.1126 ¶4

You mean it comes out that very moment before me? Not necessarily — it could, but the vision has its own appointed hour. It ripens, it will flower. Though it seem long, wait, for it is sure and it will not be late. You take any state in this world, and in your imagination you work it out, and I tell you from my own experience, you can see it — it becomes almost an objective reality in your mind’s eye. Others don’t see it — it doesn’t really matter — you see it in your mind’s eye, and it seems to you real, and it seems to you objective at that moment, and you’ll drop it in confidence that this vision has its own appointed hour, and it will ripen and it will flower. And if to others that you might have mentioned it, it seems long, then wait — it is sure and it will not be late. You will not bring it in one moment before its time, and you will not deny it, any more than you would deny the Word of God — you will actually experience it, until that appointed hour.1126 ¶5

So he said, “I am the truth.” I am the truth; in the meanwhile I am steeped in earth, believing everything — but in my own wonderful human imagination I believe in that one, I believe in that one, I believe in this person, I believe in all kinds of things other than my own imagination. And so what do I do? I am — you know — but at the appointed hour I will experience the truth. You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So no matter how long I’ve been seeking in error, at the appointed hour I will experience the truth, and at that moment I am completely set free of all the things I formerly believed in. No, I know now — I know exactly what I am and who I am, because I have experienced the truth, and you shall know — which is your experience — the truth, and the truth will set you free.1126 ¶6

So let them all be as they are. I pray not only for these, but also for them who will believe in me through their word — so I’ll pray for them, yes, all those who hear me. But I will pray not only for these, but for those who will actually believe in me through their word, who have received it, and they will cherish it, for they will have experienced what I am talking about. And then, when they actually hear it, they will gather, one by one, and all become once more the one body, the one spirit, the one Lord, the one God and Father of all. So I pray not only for you who come, but for those who will come after I am gone, who will believe in me — that is the story — through your word, you having received it, having experienced it.1126 ¶7

And so the question is: does evil befall a city unless the Lord has done it? He did not only allow it, he did it — but who was that Lord? The one who is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, that’s the Lord. Well, who is that Lord? Well — I am. I certainly wear a robe that is dipped in blood. Cut it, and you will see there is darkness, and this is the robe that I wear, and this is the Word speaking to you, that is acting out loud in a body that is flesh, and the Word became flesh and dwelt within us.1126 ¶8

So as you go out, believe it — your own wonderful human imagination, there is no other God, there is no other power, nothing outside of your own wonderful human imagination. To what extent will you accept it? Accepting it unconditioned, you may accept him with a little bit of this attitude, but the day will come you actually have him, and have him alone. I’m nothing but God — you’re either with me or against me, okay? You can’t take a little bit of me — but if you will, I will take a little bit while, and then eventually go into the holy thing entirely. But the day will come, you will only accept the Lord, and the Lord you will discover to be your own wonderful human imagination, that you’ve done.1126 ¶9

So man is God, and God is man, and they are inseparable. God appears in that place, and God is light to those poor souls who live and dwell in night. But does the human form display to those who dwell in realms of day. You want to see God in any more glorious form and use him as man? His face is man’s. Don’t go beyond it — the face, the voice, the hands are man’s, and that’s the glory of God. I mean, God is man.1126 ¶10

So whatever you do to man, you’re doing to God. And whoever beholds man, it is God who is doing it, because not a thing could happen to that man unless that man is exercising the power of the universe, did it to himself. My body is an emotional filter, and I bear the mark of my prevalent emotions, good, bad, or indifferent.1126 ¶11

So you hear something concerning a man, and you will say, “Well, you should have known better.” But the question — I should have known better — but nothing can happen to me if I had not done it. Can evil befall the city? Well, this house is the city. Can evil befall this thing called Neville, unless the Lord has done it? It cannot be — it cannot be. Therefore anything that is for me, I did it unto myself. No man comes unto me unless my Father draws him — I and my Father are one. So he cannot do anything to me unless I first did it to myself.1126 ¶12

I’m in my sleep, and in my ignorance I didn’t know it, and I thought I was doing it to another. And in my same sleep I imagine unlovely things of another, and maybe even wished them ill, and hoped for them, and set them all in motion, and they came — the appointed hour. And because there is no other, at that moment of the appointed hour, where it must ripen, it flowers, and indeed I bear the fruit of it.1126 ¶13

This is life. But you say, well, as a little child — there’s all this — as a little child we are coexistent with God. With regards to that little child, he was before the world was. He came down into the world and closed himself in a garment of flesh, just as you and I did, and he seems today more mature because we are now in our sixties, and the little child — he seems to just start. He didn’t begin in his mother’s womb, and he doesn’t end in the grave. He was before the world was — there never was a time when he was not, and nor shall there come a time when he shall cease to be. Beginning and end of a dream — just dreams. We are all one glorious dream, all one.1126 ¶14

Now tonight, if you really accept — well, I’m trying to get over it, and dwell upon how he is clothed — it will make it easier for you to accept it if you know that he is clothed in a robe dipped in blood. Read it in the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation — he is clothed, his body, in a garment dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. Well, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. By him all things were made, and without him was not anything made that was made — not a thing.1126 ¶15

All right, he’s the only creator. Now the Word spoken of here became flesh — well, I’m flesh — he became flesh and dwells — the word “dwelt” really means “within,” according to — look it up — the word is within, not “a man,” although you could certainly use it for that. He is still among us, but he is within him, and he is clothed in a garment that is dipped in blood, and some little child is not a garment of blood. That’s where the Lord bears — and that promise, the Lord with us, and he is using his imagination morning, noon, and night.1126 ¶16

Imagination is the Lord. For he dwells in me as my own wonderful human imagination. By that power I create whatever I create. By that power I injure or bless myself. By that power — anything in my world is only myself. Well, if I know this, it doesn’t really matter where I start in life. If I’m stuck in a palace, I’m no better off at all than if I start in the gutter, if I know who I am. Well, if I know who I am, and start in the gutter, I can rise to any level that I want in this world, if I know who I am. That is the only power in the world — I could start at the top, not knowing who I am, and wind up all the way down in the gutter.1126 ¶17

As we told you this past week — here we go — DuPont. You could pick a DuPont — he could lose this money, and he got thirty-one million dollars, and his friends are all wondering how on earth could we get into this. There’s a man whose grandfather — our great-great-grandfather — started the DuPont fortune, and his present father is now the chairman of the board of the fabulous concern, and he loses thirty-one million and now has declared himself bankrupt, as the great-great-grandfather did, and rose to the top — if I know who I am.1126 ¶18

And so let’s learn — am I being? I am destiny. My consideration is just: what do I want now? Take my imagination and work it up to the state of vision. But how do I work up to the state of vision? Well, I take — I take my wife, I take my child, I take my brother, and let him see me as I would be — now I am assuming that I am. And so I work it out, and suddenly, in my mind’s eye, I appear, and they have to see me as I am, assuming that I am. And then I listen in on their conversation, which implies that they do see me — it is a fact. And when I am completely satisfied that they do see me as I am seeing myself, that I’m breaking through, I drop it, knowing that that vision has its own appointed hour, and it will ripen and it will flower unto me. Who did it? It seems gone, but anyway — for it is sure, and it will not be late. It will come — not before, and not late — it will be right on time.1126 ¶19

And suddenly the whole thing will appear in my world, and they will see it. If I know that is how things are created in this world, does it really matter where I start? Can I not tell every child born of woman who they really are? And what I define this world still — telling it — because there are worlds within worlds within worlds. This is not the end — when I depart this world, I hope — yes — in the morning.1126 ¶20

A friend of mine has been gone now for about six years — a doctor — a very funny fellow. I was with him about a month before he died — he went down to nothing in weight — and he said, “But you know, from experience, that there is continuity, that there is survival?” I said, “I don’t know, I have no assurance.” And he said, “Oh, you don’t know?” But — he claims he died, and I believe him, but I don’t know, I have no assurance whatsoever. He was a doctor, but he really wanted to be a musician — he loved music beyond anything in this world; his house was full of instruments, and that was his passion. He’s gone now six years — his wife remarried, his two children, they’re married — but he had a very peculiar, wonderful sense of humor.1126 ¶21

The first day I met him, years ago, when I came out — and — it’s now — used to be the townhouse, is now the church in the West, or something — for he moved in and spent the month that I gave my lectures here. And the very first day that I met him — as at his funeral — he said, “You know, I feel more like I do now than when I came in.” Pronounce that — doesn’t make sense, does it? “I feel more like I do now than when I came in.” But after he said it — it’s because it didn’t make sense — he said, “Now repeat what I said.” Well, I couldn’t — it made no sense.1126 ¶22

Well, he did the same thing just the morning before he died, to show you — he died at the age of fifty-six. I know — you go back to around twenty, and here you stand before me — and he didn’t look one day over — twenty-four, twenty-five — and he pulled not that same line, but something far more funny than that, and I — actually not screaming, but laughing, laughing out loud. And he took words and twisted them in the same way, and there he is, a man of about twenty-four, twenty-five — that was the way he would identify himself. Anyway, here I was in this place — it was a hospital — and I was talking with another doctor, and all of a sudden he comes in and does the same thing again. I tell you, the whole thing is within man — there is no death, but a man has thrown away — into who he is now — he knows that he has survived, he has no doubt in his mind’s eye that he is restored tonight, but he’s just the same wonderful boy that he was here at thirty-six. You wouldn’t call that a boy, but I call everyone a child who is unaware of who he is — just a child — and he’s the same child now that he was there, although now he’s only about twenty-four, twenty-five or so.1126 ¶23

But I tell you — if I could get over tonight, if you could dwell upon the fact that you are wearing a robe dipped in blood — why do you care? [The following short span is heavily garbled and left close to verbatim.] You can’t get away from that fact if you are wearing a garment, a robe dipped in blood; if you dwell upon it, then whatever I said prior to this moment, in this very moment, you’ll begin to see through, and you will take it more seriously. This one who is dipped in blood — well, this garment dipped in blood — then who am I? Well, don’t you say, “I am that” — that same one who is wearing this garment dipped in blood. I give it the name imagination — then you’ll come back and ask, “Is that the creative power?” Yes, that’s the creative power.1126 ¶24

And you mean that I am nothing but a child — that’s all that I am, an emotional child — and I bear the marks of my present emotions. Now, what is my present emotion? What is your name? You could name the wealth if you wanted — you could actually feel that you’re completely worthy — feel yourself to be anything in this world, if that’s what you want. It has never been my cup of tea — I have never really desired to be wealthy. I don’t consider myself poor — my income is adequate — not from the sale of my lectures, but my income is adequate, based upon what my earthly father left me.1126 ¶25

It’s adequate, more than adequate. So it’s not dependent on this, but this is my passion — to tell the Word of God, not for the income that it produces, because you can see it doesn’t produce it. But unto the very end of my days I want — okay, everyone — so I pray not only for these things, but for those who actually will believe in me through their word, for they will hear it, experience it, and then they will get it, that they may be one, even as you, Father, and I are one — and I will dwell in them, they will dwell in me, and we all — for eventually everyone must be — that is God’s plan.1126 ¶26

By knowing the truth I will know the truth, and the truth will set me free, so I will experience the story as told in scripture, and having experienced it, be automatically set free of the error that’s confining. But I believe in this, and that, and something else, and suddenly I believe in nothing but my own being, that I either played wisely, or played — and why — but I must reap the consequences of what I am doing with my own wonderful human imagination, because evil cannot come into some horrible world — can evil befall a city unless it is done by the Lord? And I found the Lord to be the wearer of that garment of blood, and the garment is this garment that I’m wearing now, and the one who is wearing it, I am — that’s the Lord, his name forever and forever.1126 ¶27

Therefore no evil can befall — unless the Lord has done it, and the Lord is my own wonderful human imagination. So that I can rub out the seeming accidents of the world — I can undo all the things that seem to be horrors of the world. I know that I cannot avoid what I have done, I must reap it. Eventually I learn then to plan wisely, and to live wisely, and to simply bless everyone — it’s myself anyway. I am not taking anything from myself by praying for another. For when Job prayed for his friends, his own captivity was lifted, because it wasn’t really another — the whole vast world was himself, pushed out.1126 ¶28

I don’t have to be concerned about it, what is in it for me — but I ask for the abundance for another — I can ask for abundance for any being in the world. Really, I have no desire for what is called real, real wealth. First of all, it would be a problem — I would have to give time to the management of great wealth — you just don’t have it unless you let it be — you have to manage it, and watch your portfolio, and do all kinds of things — that is not my cup of tea.1126 ¶29

What I have today, that my father gave me, I couldn’t even tell you what its value is. I do not know where it is — I know the family dividends, and therefore I know the stock is there. What its worth is, I don’t know, having the slightest idea where it is; what its true value is, I still do not know. I only know from what they tell me it’s thought to be in excess of what it is carried on the book — but being a family concern, we do not have to declare its true value unless we go public. If we ever go public, then the true value would have to be established.1126 ¶30

But I do know from dividend checks that the value on the book is ridiculous, completely ridiculous — how can they give you the cash check that they give you, and that’s — an accurate value? So they have to take that figure, whatever it is, and multiply it to get to its true value. But I am not concerned — I have but a few years to go, and what is there is adequate for my life, if she is surviving — and if she doesn’t survive me, and I follow her — it won’t be too long. My daughter will get it. I never got it just because I got it from my father — I don’t care what she does with it, I have no strings attached to it — she can take the whole thing, tear it up and throw it away, as far as I’m concerned.1126 ¶31

I would like them to know who they really are before I depart. But — “a prophet is not without honor, save in his own house” — you don’t find people interested in what you have to say. Thank you again. But I never hear my son ask me any questions at all — I don’t think he’s ever read one of my books. And my daughter lives alone, to the best of her ability, but I’m her father — a good, solid power of concentrated thinking concerning this mystery. He knows how I think and how I live — she sees it, and it sort of rubs off on us, but it’s not something that she really exposes herself to.1126 ¶32

But here — I’ll try my best to get it over to every one of them, that when I am gone, through your word, those who will come after will believe. But I say, in believing, in the teaching, it doesn’t really matter where someone is born — this night, in a very tense world — if he knows who he is, he can be anything he wants to be in his world. He can realize it all — all he has to do is work up his imagination to the state of vision. And — the one standing next to him is not the spirit, it is not some ghost where the other one will begin — no, it’s always in the man himself — you see this right within his own wonderful mind.1126 ¶33

And when Blake said — he came upon a flock of sheep, and suddenly the earth cried out into beautiful, beautiful flowers, and a lady — the children just returned — and she said, “Mr. Blake, where did you see these things?” Because he said, suddenly it all turned into beautiful — something — and she was flabbergasted, and thought the man was completely insane. And then the church claims stories of Blake, but they were not true, but just to discredit the man, because he said these fantastic things.1126 ¶34

And to walk down Cheapside, someone said he simply took off his hat and bowed right down to the earth, and — “what did you do that for?” — well, he said that was the Apostle Paul. No one — anyone — he didn’t do that, but all these things to discredit the man who only believed in the true Lord.1126 ¶35

Why did he have money? Well, that wasn’t of interest to him. Today you wouldn’t buy it — one copy that is colored, of the four, called “Jerusalem” — you could find, there’s no money that could buy it, it’s owned by Yale University. How they got it, I do not know — it’s the only copy that he colored — he left other copies of the great poem “Jerusalem,” and Yale has one, and the only colored one — others have been copied from them, that’s the original copy, and you put a price on it, you couldn’t buy it. I bet — one just sold in London for five and a half million dollars, but you couldn’t buy anything for this only colored copy.1126 ¶36

He didn’t want money. And I’ve asked that question, and — [the following short span is garbled and left close to verbatim] — well, I’m actually indifferent to it — but they had no money, and if he knew all of this, why didn’t he have money? Is that your only value in this world, that you have money? I have had the misfortune of meeting so many very wealthy people, my family and others, and it’s no pleasure, because their concept of life is simply right in the gutter — the most sorry things in the world — not all of them, but so many of them are. How would they understand one who would tell them that their inherited wealth, or their ill-gotten gains, means nothing to him? But he was quite satisfied to sit down with a potato and call it a feast and be happy, if you could put a little bit of something with it, and he didn’t have to have all the things on the other side.1126 ¶37

He lived and worked in one room — the very room in which he worked, in that room he died. And after two hundred years, all those who were prominent in his day are gone, and he gets bigger and bigger and bigger in the mind’s eye, as the giant in the use of the English tongue, and brought a revelation divine to the world. And yet he was completely unknown, and buried in an unknown grave. You’re wondering — but great to know.1126 ¶38

So I’m not here to tell you that you should or should not seek wealth — well, if you want it, okay, it’s yours for the taking, if you know who you are. And I’m telling you who you are — there’s only one God, and he’s actually seated here tonight in everyone — he’s seated here, and he is your own wonderful human imagination, and by him all things were made, and without him was not anything made that was made. So you name what you want made in your world, and then work up your imagination to that state of vision, and then it is done. At that moment it is done — just drop it — and the vision has its own appointed hour when it will flower. So you go your way, leaving it alone, and when you least suspect it, it’s going to erupt in your world.1126 ¶39

And yet we’re not predetermined to play a certain part — we are predetermined for the Word to fulfill the Word of God, but as far as the parts in the world, no — we are emotional children, and we will play our thoughts based upon the degree that we have understood who we are. If I really knew who I am, in the midst of some mental turmoil, now, stop it — I know what I’m doing to myself by continuing. And yet I have heard people say to me, “I know what I’m going to do to myself eventually, but it’s such fun — such fun to blow him out and tell him what I think of him” — and yet he doesn’t know the person at all.1126 ¶40

That story I know personally — in New York City, when this man hated Roosevelt, and I said, “Do you know him?” “No, but I despise him.” He despised Roosevelt because this friend, who was born in Brooklyn of Germanic parentage — and because he was born American, American, but he was of Germanic spirit — and Roosevelt declared war against what he called — this is his land. I said, “All right, keep on doing it and see what’s going to happen to you, indeed.” All that he wanted Roosevelt to experience, he himself experienced, and he knew it would happen — it happened.1126 ¶41

But he said, “If you only knew the thrill I get, morning after morning, doing it, you would allow me to do it.” Well, I can’t stop you from doing it anyway. He said, “I go to Broadway and spend ten dollars for a seat for a show, and no show on Broadway gives me the same pleasure that those three minutes before the mirror does in the morning” — strange enough. And so he knew exactly what’s going to happen to him — may I tell you, indeed so — he got an emotional kick out of the stupid activity.1126 ¶42

Well, now, you do it — it’s going to happen to you. You can stop me now — and no matter what you’ve done so far, stop it now. It’s coming up — when it comes, place it — stop it now and free yourself completely. But I make you a promise — the day is coming, you’re going to experience the truth of scripture, and the truth is — this is — “I am the truth” — and when you experience the truth, no matter how long you have been in error, you will be completely set free of all the things you formerly taught yourself. The day you experience it — and you know who you are, and you are the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the only God.1126 ¶43

Blake was asked one day by his wife, “What do you think of Jesus?” Blake replied, without batting an eye, “Jesus is the only God” — and so am I, and so are you. But at that moment Crabb Robinson must have gone cold — he asked a simple question and not this wonderful answer — “Jesus, he is the only God, and so am I.”1126 ¶44

Well, what is the other God? Jesus is your own wonderful human imagination — there is no other. Jesus is your own wonderful human imagination, and Jesus, his body, is everyone in the world, and by him, which is your imagination, all things are made, and without your imagination there is nothing made that is made — be it good, bad, or indifferent. And you can start tonight to test Jesus as yourself. “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in thee, unless of course you fail to meet the test?” And I trust you will realize that we have not failed, in reading the text.1126 ¶45

Apologies — I should make every effort to find out who he is — but who is he? By the nineteenth chapter, he always wears a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he’s called is the Word of God, and that Word became flesh and dwelt within us. So that is his name forever — he’s the Word of God, and he wears the robe dipped in blood. Well, now you’re dipped in blood, and so while you’re wearing these garments, even though they are confining, no one is aware of them, and the wearer is your own wonderful human imagination. And you take it, and not one power in the world can stop you from becoming the one you want to be.1126 ¶46

Don’t blame it on the pigment of your skin, or your racial background, or anything in the world. When you read these things in the paper, you scream out, “If they could only know who they are! If they could only realize who they are!” Not blaming it on some so-called limitations of birth, or the so-called accident of birth — the speaker certainly can stand before anyone and honestly say that no one in that group started any more behind the eight ball than the speaker, to this day. You mentioned the word “Barbados” — first of all, it’s only twenty-one miles long and only fourteen miles wide, that’s the little spot, completely unknown, set out in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. And here are — a family, a very large family, and no financial background, no social, no intellectual background, and this large family — but my father knew the power of imagination, and my brother speaks to it, my mother, she also knew it, and in some peculiar way it’s passed on.1126 ¶47

For today, they don’t need anyone to help them — they are the ones in the position of telling people today. There’s no one on the island more prominent financially than they are — the governor comes to get the advice of my brother Victor on economic matters — they all seek his advice, not others. And you are hearing of a boy who had nothing, but he started off — exactly what he was doing, he saw in his mind’s eye what he wanted, as if it were true, would imply that we owned it, and he saw it, he worked himself, after the vision, and then in due course of time it happens. This particular vision took two years, and an almost uncanny stranger was the means by which we bought the building for eight hundred and forty thousand dollars — the same building for which we only paid fifty thousand, we saw grow to over eight hundred and forty thousand, in the meanwhile doing a favorable business — instead of one across the way, in the middle of the block, or something like a hundred and twenty-five thousand — we’ve already been offered something like six million for it. And that’s all Victor’s doing, in his mind’s eye.1126 ¶48

But that’s his property — he likes the use of money, not really to have money, but just the use of it — it excites him. He had a peculiar art of spending, and he had the art of investing, so he balances the two. He invests, his brother spends, each in his own way — but here, the God of the scripture is your own wonderful human imagination. The Lord Jesus Christ, prior to this moment he might have bowed before, is your own wonderful human imagination — that is the only Jesus in the world, that’s it — the sacred being, wearing a robe dipped in blood, and that robe of blood is your own physical body that you’re wearing now. That is — and so that’s the Word became flesh, and dwelt within us. Now, that is my story tonight.1126 ¶49