Well, first of all, there are people today who would sell their soul to be mentioned by Winchell. That’s vanity. They’d give anything to appear on the cover of Time or Life or, maybe, Playboy, give anything! I mean, they would really give their body for this transient thing…that’s vanity! But you go beyond it, all the medals that our great generals and our great politicians acquire, they’re all poured out as nothingness when you see the vision. If you ever read The Vision of the Last Judgment by Blake, you saw them all being poured out, a huge cornucopia, pouring out all vanities of earth and all the riches of the earth. Today, if someone came in here and was very, very wealthy and someone whispered to the other, “You know who’s here? Getty!” Well, those who heard the name Getty wouldn’t hear one word that Neville is saying. They’d all turn around and see a man who has a billion dollars, and I may be at that very moment really revealing the most profound of the mysteries of Christ. But there would be no ear to hear it if they knew Getty was in the audience. Because, “Getty is here, he made a billion, let us get his secret, not what Neville is talking about. How did he make a billion?” And so, that is vanity, all these are vanities. Tomorrow morning’s paper…alright, I’ll go back…Easter’s coming now, isn’t it? In New York City, my secretary went down to place an ad in the New York Times…this is now, oh, twenty-five years ago. She wasn’t available at the time…she had an appointment with him, but she forgot it. So he waited and cooled his heels in her office. So when she came in she was embarrassed, because she saw on a memo pad she had a date with my secretary, Jack Butler. So, to in some way justify it or to ease the little tension, she said, “Mr. Butler, have you ever seen our social floor?” He said no. Jack never saw the social floor. “Would you like to see it?” and so, naturally, he said he’d like to see it. So she took him down to the social floor to the editor of the social page. All of these lovely, beautiful girls all lined up, and their mothers. Now, this is a month before Easter. She said, “Do you know what they are here for? This is all pre-arranged, all to be photographed in the gowns that they’re wearing. So when you see the Monday morning issue of the New York Times, the day after Easter, these spontaneous pictures coming out of St. Patrick’s, coming out of St. Thomas, coming out of this, coming out of the other, all this was done in advance and its all pre-arranged. These are the top of the social world, and so they want their daughters and themselves and all these people on that page. All this was pre-arranged and done.” That’s the vanities of which I speak. God doesn’t see it at all but Mrs. Jones sees it, Mrs. Brown sees it, and Mrs. So-and-So sees it, and they’ll buy…in fact, we sell thousands of papers that, really, the advertising is completely gyped. If you go to the races over here, which I do occasionally when my friend takes me, there are…if there are 50,000 people at the races, 50,000 papers are bought that day only for the entries, then all of the papers thrown away, all the ads. So I’ve gone there when 60,000 people were at the race track here, and I myself, I go buy this paper. What do I do? I throw every part of it away but all about the horses. There’s not an ad on that page, so that all the advertising in 60,000 papers that day didn’t register at all, but they can say on their top that we sold this day 780,000 papers. But they don’t tell you how many, maybe, 200 or 300,000 were bought only for one purpose. If I were the mother of one of these little girls and got my little girl’s picture in the paper, I would buy two dozen of them, cut out just the picture, and send it to all my friends, and throw the paper away. So all these are the vanities of which he speaks. “Who does not lift up his soul unto vanity and will not swear deceitfully.” Well, that’s obvious, that’s obvious to swear to [...]. This day I went to my barber…I always get a little something from him…and so he was in a very heavy mood today. And so a Mr. Snyder was in the chair and he’s the manager of one of the big apartment houses on Doheny, and he was telling a story. He said he’s from Chicago…he’s really from Russia…but he’s lived a long time in Germany and he’s lived all over this country, but now he’s living here. So, said he, when I was in Chicago my son who was then in high school wanted to get a license to drive a car, so he went down to the bureau to get a license, and the man who was in control of that department…in the days when the mayor was Honest Bill Thompson. You know Bill, when he died they found in his safe deposit box over $500,000 in cash…but he was always known as “Honest” Bill Thompson.” Well, in this department, to give a man a license to drive a car, this kid, just in high school, the man said to him, “How much money do you have on you?” He said, “Seventy-five cents.” “You give it to me” and he took from this kid seventy-five cents. These are the unclean hands. Now Bill Thompson left not only what he left obviously for the world to see, but when they began to ferret out all these hidden boxes, they found another million dollars, all in cash…but he was the “honest” mayor of Chicago. Now, these are the unclean hands. But forgive him because you and I have done it, we’ve all done it. We’ve played all these parts, and God in his infinite mercy hides it from me. Because if I could remember now the horrors that I’ve gone through, and the bribes I’ve taken, and the murders committed, and all the horrors of the world, I wouldn’t have the courage to stand before you. Because, tonight, I’ve been cleaned, because I have been put to these tests in this little interval of sixty years and I haven’t failed. In all of my poverty, in all of my needs and wants, I haven’t failed to meet the test. Now what…I must remember I didn’t begin in my mother’s womb. I am one with the being who created the whole vast universe and he limited himself to the thing called Neville unnumbered ages ago, and then started the journey, and put me through every test. I have flunked them all until he expanded me and increased the power that I could then pass them all. So, if today he’s brought me to the point where I can actually have in me the fulfillment of scripture…for the only purpose of Christ in man is to fulfill scripture…and as I stand before you, I have fulfilled scripture. I know of no part of scripture that I haven’t fulfilled: The resurrection, the birth, the discovery of David, the ascension, and the dove. I know of no other part of scripture that I must fulfill. I only wait, and I’m not saying impatiently…no, I wait patiently for the taking off of this body for the last time. Goodnight.817 ¶43