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”. 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.785 ¶47