5/14/65
I would call it “The Greatest of All Blessings.” Like all visions in scripture they are on levels. So I could take it on this level, and if I took it on this level then tell a little story to illustrate it. So the greatest of all blessings would be a strong Imagination, a clear idea, and a determinate vision of things as we desire them to be, all clearly fixed in our mind, and never waver from that vision, regardless of what you hear, regardless of what rumor comes into your world. Just a strong Imagination, a clear idea, and a determinate vision of things as you would like them to be, which would imply the fulfillment of a dream, your dream…on this level.
That same formula holds good for us on the highest level. It is held in the Divine Mind, and his dream for us is “Let us make man in our image.” That has never faltered, never wavered. It still remains fixed in the Divine Mind. Regardless of what we go through in this world, that remains fixed so that must come out. You and I, on this level, we may waver and break the image and feel that the law doesn’t work. But on the highest level for us there is no wavering, God is faithful. You can trust him implicitly to produce in us the image, which is the image of himself: “Let us make man in our image.”
On this level, let me show you in a simple way how this law operates. I received a letter yesterday from a friend who is here tonight. Another friend, who also is here tonight, shared with us an experience of his, and based upon this, this friend applied it, that if you want to help another, you become the other. You simply assume that you are the other, and then you give to the other that which they are either unwilling or incapable of giving to themselves. He did it with remarkable success, fantastic success! He took many, but he told us of a few, that he had assumed the personality of that other, and then while he wore that personality he simply gave to himself as that being what that being could not give to self.
Well, this gentleman who’s here tonight, he said, “I play golf. I don’t play it well, but I play golf, occasionally. And so, a friend of mine said to me, one with whom I’ve played time and again, “What about a game tomorrow?” and I accepted the invitation. So, that night, the night before the game, I assumed I was my friend. I entered his body, and then wearing the body of my friend”…he then complimented himself on every stroke on the game that he played. So he played the part of his opponent complimenting himself on the game that he played. The next day…first of all he said, “We’re not the best players. We only play nine holes, and we always come, I would say, equal. We do it in fifty-six or fifty-seven strokes. That is our score for nine holes.”
So he said, “The next day we played, and it was sheer fantasy, everything just went right for me. At the end of the game I won by ten strokes, and he, at every hole, was complimenting me. He said my putting was simply amazing…everything…as I’d never done it before, everything was perfect.” But he said, “Neville, I didn’t intend to beat him, that was not the purpose, but I tell you this to show you how the law works. I wonder if Arnold Palmer knows about it?” Undoubtedly he does. He puts himself into the body of Nicklaus and has Jack compliment him on every hole, then who is going to win? I just say this is how the laW works: a strong Imagination, a clear idea, and a determinate vision of things as you want them to be, and to not waver in that state. This is how the law works in this world of ows. God, on the higher level, holds us, holds everyone, in his minds eye to form everyone into the image of himself, for that image is Jesus Christ.
Now I asked you a few weeks ago la assume as you retire at night that you are Jesus Christ—I had a purpose for it—just assume “I am Jesus Christ.” Well, if that is the root, then you will grow from that root, for all things bring forth after their kin6. Well, a few hardy souls had the courage to try it, and I can’t tell you my thrill tonight that from this small audience, three men—two are present tonight, one is not, but he was here last Tuesday—on the basis of this assumption wrote me these letters. Now here is the first, this chap assumed that “I am Jesus Christ.” He tried to feel what it would be like were he Jesus Christ, and fell asleep. He found himself sitting at a long table with benches for seats, just as you would in a park, say a picnic ground. Two first cousins were present. This lad, like his cousins, were all born and raised in the Catholic faith. They could not claim today that they are practicing Catholics, but they were born and raised in that faith.
A discussion started, and my friend tried to persuade them of the reality of the power and wisdom of God, and told them that the power and the wisdom of God was Spirit. They seemed to be shocked when he told them what he did about the power and wisdom of God. He said, “I’m not making this up, I will show it to you in scripture. This was written by Paul 2,000 years ago.” This is all in his dream…he’s talking this way…and he tried to find a New Testament where he could turn to the first chapter of the 1st epistle of Corinthians, which is the 24th verse, to read this passage. Then he said, before finding the Bible, he said, “In the scripture written 2,000 years ago the power and the wisdom of God was named Jesus Christ.” And with that, it was such a startling statement that the whole dream vanished. They vanished. He awoke from it all and he remembered what he had dreamed.
Now, may I tell you, the whole purpose of life…if by God’s law you owned the earth—and many have tried to own the earth; great tyrants the world over over the centuries have tried to own this earth. They’ve all failed. But if you did succeed in owning the earth, you’ll make your exit anyway, like the little grass that withers and the flower that falls. Everything goes that way. But if you only fulfill scripture…for the purpose of life is to fulfill scripture. He said, I have come and my only purpose is to fulfill scripture. Scripture must be fulfilled in me. As we read it in the 24th chapter of the Book of Luke, “And he began with Nooses and then the prophets and then in the psalms, and he interpreted to all of them all that was said of him in scripture” (verse 27). So Jesus Christ in man is being formed; as he’s being formed, he unfolds scripture. So here is my friend who actually in a state that you’d call an involuntary state, he is quoting scripture. He’s quoting the 24 verse of the first chapter of 1st Corinthians. He is unfolding scripture within himself by first assuming “I am Jesus Christ.”
Now, another one writes a letter, and he said, “I assumed I am Jesus Christ. I found myself walking down a highway, moving towards an institution for men. I knew there were all men there and they needed my help, and that was the purpose of my journey, I’m going to help them. So as I went down toward this place, I entered the courtyard of the institution, and instantly an enormous dog jumped at me. I held him. As I put my right hand forward it went through the collar and in some way held him and therefore arrested his motion, so he did not really hurt. And then, as I held him, all he could do was simply to nuzzle my neck, perfectly harmless. But I saw men in the area and I knew intuitively that these men had planned this trick, and they were enjoying the little trick of this seemingly vicious dog. All that I had within me as an emotion was compassion for them, that’s all that I had, just compassion. And then I had no resentment, I had no feeling of hurt, just sheer compassion for these men who had plotted and planned this trick against me. Then I turned my back on the men and I repeated the 11th verse of the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians, and this is the verse: ’When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child; when I became a man, I put childish things away.’ And then I woke.” Here is scripture… fulfilling scripture in the unfolding soul. I say to him, he hasn’t far to go. It always strikes me in a very strange way that everyone across this country as I go they’re always quoting the words of Paul. When the song begins to unfold, there are only two more verses left and the next really links it with the last. The next verse, “Now we see through a glass darkly”—-or as one translation has it, “We see in a mirror dimly”—-“but then face to face.” That’s the 12 verse and then we come into the 13 . I know from experience when you stand face to face with the risen Christ you pronounce the last verse, and it is: “Faith, hope and love, these three abide; but the greatest of these is love.” So the next vision comes when you are brought into the presence of the risen Christ (a man); and when you answer by quoting the last verse of 13 Corinthians, he embraces you. As he embraces you, you are fused with the body of Christ. You’re incorporated into the body of Christ. You’re one with the body of Christ, and one with the Spirit of Christ. Then you’re sent into this world to tell the story of the risen Christ.
So here, this chap, by daring to assume “I am Christ”…and he found that the position in the moving drama where he is in the unfolding soul. What you are in the world of Caesar doesn’t really matter. He may be tonight completely unknown even in his neighborhood. He may have no security in the world of Caesar. He may be almost tongue-tied among people, that’s entirely up to him, or others, doesn’t really matter. But in the world of God, the unfolding soul, here he stands at the end of this wonderful drama as recorded in Corinthians. He’s on the verge. He’s only a verse away from it, because the 12th and the 13th they come together: “Now I see in a mirror dimly; but them face to face” and that comes right…face to face comes with the answer, which is “The greatest of these is love” as though you were prompted what to say when you’re asked “What is the greatest thing in the world?”
Now scripture also tells the symbolism (I do not go into that) of the dog…all that is told in the 22n chapter of Psalms and in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. All of that is recorded in Genesis in depth. And there was a place for men only, that’s what he brought out, an institution for men, and only men. We’re told in the 22n Psalm that they were wicked, “And the dogs surrounded me and the wicked ones encircled me.” So you know by the symbol of the dog who the wicked ones are. If you have a concordance and you look it up—I need not discuss it from the platform—you’ll know exactly the kind of institution that it was. It’s all part of the unfolding scripture.
Now the third one, who is not here tonight, he said, “I assumed I am Jesus Christ.” That night as he slept, he said, “I found myself in an enormous amphitheater, huge place, crowded to the gunnels. I was at the very base, the very bottom of it all. At the top stood you and you addressed this enormous crowd. You were asking all of us if we would, with you, afhrm “I am Jesus Christ.” And so all who would agree to it would rise, and only a few of us rose. I rose…just a few rose…and then together you led us and you said, “I am Jesus Christ”…only a few from this enormous crowd in this amphitheater. And then I woke.”
Again, that is scripture…not quoting it…but that’s scripture, the 6th chapter of the Book of John. Here was the biggest crowd recorded in scripture, the 5,000. (??) modify it, just a big crowd. This from scripture would be an enormous crowd. Now this is the book or the chapter of the entire Bible that you can name, if you want to give it a name, secession. Where they heard the story, the grand story of the gospel, and only a few could take it; and the majority couldn’t take it, so they turned away, never to walk with him again. For he said, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. And they said, We know this man. We know his father Joseph and we know his father and mother, and how does he say, I came down from heaven? Then he said, “Unless you eat the body and drink the blood of the Son of man, you have no life in you” (verse 53). How could he say, Unless we eat the body and drink the blood of the Son of man? He calls himself the Son of man, which is the Son of God, and he claims as Son of God he is one with God, that “I and my Father are one.” How can this thing be? So they left, never to walk with him again. He turned to the few who remained, just a few, and he said, “Will you also go away?” Peter answered, “To whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and we have come to know you are the Holy One of Israel” (verse 67).
They first heard it; hearing it, they believed it. And through belief they
came to know, like these three tonight. They came to know the truth of the word of God. They know these words are true. Tonight, anyone here familiar with these words, with the Bible, can quote them, but when you are asleep you are not rationalizing. These things spring like flowers coming out of a vine. You can’t in sleep, when you are not rationalizing, think these things. They simply spring into being based upon where you are in the unfolding tree of life. And so here, “We believed it, and having believed it we have come to know you are the Holy one of Israel.”
Now, how would we eat the body of Jesus Christ? I could have the biggest meal in the world; it’s no earthly good to me unless I eat it. When I eat it, I assimilate what I can; what I can’t I expel, my system expels it.
But I first must eat it. Well, how would I eat the body of Jesus Christ?—by simply assuming rim Jesus Christ. And all that Jesus Christ represents as I read about it in scripture, I assume I am he. I may not be able to assimilate rim that I am told concerning Jesus Christ. What I cannot, I will eliminate. But I can start eating him and drinking his blood by making it alive within me. As I do so, then he begins to unfold within me. I must eat his body to have life within me, I mitst drink his blood, and the eating and the drinking of this being is simply “I am he.”
We are told there is only one body, one Spirit, one God and Father of us all, who is above all, through all, and in all (Eph. 4:4). Well, if that is true, and I’m taught to believe and asked to say “our Father”…he tells me “I am Father.” If I am called upon to say “our Father” and then the one who teaches me to say “our Father” tells me “I am Father; when you see me you see the Father; I am the Father,” well, then I assume I am he. If I assume I am he and he’s the Father, then all that is said of the Father, that he’s the only Spirit, the only body, should begin to unfold within me to the degree that I assimilate him, that I feast upon it and feed upon it.
So here, in the short order of three weeks three men, all in their thirties, who are here, could actually assume the state to the point of revealing where they stand in scripture. For the only reason for it all is to unfold God’s word; there’s no other purpose. But if you owned the entire world and scripture didn’t begin to unfold within you, what would it matter? For we are told the whole vast world is as grass and all its splendor like a flower of the field; “the grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of God endures forever more.” So this word endures forevermore, therefore, let it unfold within its. It unfolds when you dare to assume that I am Christ.
But now I warn you and this is a warning given to us in the first chapter of the 1“ Epistle of Peter: “If you invoke as Father him who judges each one impartially concerning their deeds, then conduct yourselves with awe through your entire life in exile” (verse 17). This is the exile. Everyone wearing this veil of flesh is exiled from heaven. While you are here, when you dare to invoke as Father he who judges each one impartially according to their deeds, well, then you judge your own.
Don’t think tonight, with dirty hands, the unclean hands, all things, that you dare to invoke him, because you are warned (it’s subtly) what’s going to happen. You are actually conjuring the power of the universe, but it’s yourself. It’s your very being. It is God. You are God. There’s only God, there’s nothing but God. God became as we are that we may be as he is.
So tonight, these three gentlemen, they didn’t for one moment think they were not worthy of such an association, and they claimed “I am Jesus Christ.” They were rewarded with the most glorious vision of where they stand in scripture. Scripture is unfolding in man: “Scripture mitst be fulfilled in me.” As it fulfills itself in me, then I awaken and I am he. Who? The one who voiced it and who through his servants the prophets recorded scripture. So tonight you can take it on this level, as he took it with the golf course. That’s simple enough. He realized after he did it…I hope it wasn’t too much of a bet against his friend, unless he shares with the friend his knowledge of Christ. Next time he meets his friend he can tell him what he did, and then encourage the friend to try the same thing with him, so that he will actually begin to awake. But I tell you it works! It’s something that cannot fail if you will assume that you are the man that you want to be.
Now, this other aspect of this great secret of imagining was given to us by my friend, who is here tonight. He went home and in a vision he was told quite vividly—he being a writer, he was the perfect medium through which it could come—that when you would help another in your Imagination, do for the other what you do when you write a play. In writing a play you play all the characters, so you assume all the characters. Even in a love scene you make love to self to find out what this one would say, what this one would react to, and if in the love scene a slap in the face is in order, you slap yourself. Then in playing all the parts you know exactly how to unfold it. Well, now in doing so, now do the same thing for one you would help when you would apply your Imagination towards the other. So he went home…that is, that very next day having received this revelation he tried it out. And with what startling success!
Then, the following week he wrote me another letter where he warned me to warn you to do it always with love. For the first time he did
it, he simply assumed that he was the one he wanted to help, and her immediate need was a car. So he simply assumed he was driving as this one the new car with the top down and the wind blowing in her face. It was a woman. In the immediate present her mother gave her the sum of money to buy the car, and justified the gif by saying since she did not have a car, she has not been seeing her as often as she would like to see her. So she gave the money so that when she has the car she’d pay more visits to the mother. So the new car…and it is with the top down, and the same make, and the same color that he in his imagined state rode. The identical make, the identical color, and the top down, a convertible. That’s the car she bought without knowing what this man did.
Then with the new car…she said to him to get a certain party out of her life, but do it without offence, do it without hurting him. He, on the other hand, when he once more assumed her body, to get rid of this character he did not do it with love. For six hours he was locked in her body and couldn’t get out. He just couldn’t get out for six hours. When he finally got out and disengaged himself from this association, he was so emotionally and mentally and physically exhausted, he fell asleep and slept for twelve unbroken hours. So, very nicely and wisely he wrote me another letter asking me to tell you, who heard the first aspect of this wonderful working of the law, not to do it save you do it in love. For you may be locked in that which you thought you were going to help and got lost in something other than love. For God is love. So if you do it in love you can’t go wrong. You will do it beautifully and you will disengage as easily as going in and out of an open door. So that is on this level.
On the highest level, you will know exactly where you stand this
night…tomorrow night if it doesn’t come tonight…if you dare. I can’t say that all of you here will dare. My friend said to me that the two cousins of his, raised as he was as Catholics, thought he was blaspheming. It’s all in the dream. And said he to himself but he didn’t voice it to them, “Had I been told the same story of Jesus Christ a few years ago I would have felt as you feel now.” He didn’t criticize them. He knew how they felt, but he didn’t tell them that he, a few years ago, would have felt the same thing; he thought it to himself. But now, having heard it, having applied it and worked it on this level, he knew that this power was Jesus Christ, as told us in scripture.
My friend who told the story, he was actually quoting the 24th verse of
the 1 t chapter of 1St Corinthians, that the Spirit that is called Jesus Christ, that this is the power and the wisdom of God personified as a man. Well, you’re a man aren’t you? Well, the power is in for. It’s being formed into the image of God. But that power operates through the agency of man. And when it’s formed in you so it’s the perfect image of God, well, then the shell is broken, and you come out. But you still remain here in this world playing your part until that moment in time when the veil is taken off, and it’s taken off for the last time.
So everyone will actually be incorporated into the one body. So I meant it when I wrote it in that little tiny pamphlet of mine He Breaks the Shell that we are gathered one by one to be united into a single man who is God. What a shock to the whole vast world! When my friend saw this enormous crowd, almost like a pyramid…because were I at the top and he at the bottom, it couldn’t really be an arena as he described it…this great amphitheater, how could it be? I should be down at the bottom addressing the crowd, but, here, I was at the top, the apex, addressing this crowd…almost like a great pyramid. They were all seated and not a seat to be had. But only a few would rise, only a few had the courage to claim “I am Christ.”
Three weeks ago when I made this statement there was a chap here, he brought a family of seven, his wife and children and all, and he made a date to see me the following Tuesday. It was on Friday night that I made the statement, and he had a date to see me on Tuesday. That was made before the lecture. He not only did not keep the date, he hasn’t phoned me, he hasn’t written me, not a card. He, seven of them altogether who came, they were symbolic of the crowd who cannot take it. He has his concept of Jesus Christ as some being who lived and died 2,000 years ago; and hopes to see him come in some strange way, maybe a glorified man, but he wants to see a little man all glorified with light to save his world. That’s not Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the power and the wisdom of God buried in every child born of woman. Everyone has to go through the same unfolding word of God. That remains forever. Nations come and go, empires come and they fall, everything comes and goes, and withers just like the grass, and falls like the flower, but the word of God, which is the gospel, the story of the gospel, remains forever. It unfolds in the individual.
And so, practice the law on this level that you may become familiar with it and have faith in Jesus Christ, who is the power and the wisdom of God. So you start on this level, and then that something begins to unfold within you, and it unfolds in the automatic, involuntary manner in the form of a dream or a vision. You go back and you search scripture and you find in scripture the passage that you have experienced, and you know exactly where you stand in the unfolding drama. You come to the end of Revelation when you stand in the presence of infinite love and it’s God, the risen Christ, who incorporated you. And then, you go through telling your story as best you can of the risen Christ. Whether they believe it or not, you tell it.
Then you come to the grand series of events, and there are eight. There are eight, and eight is the symbol of the complete resurrection. You start with the crucifixion: “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6:5). Watch the distinction in tense. We have been united with him in a death like his; we shall be united with him in a resurrection like his. So here, that’s the beginning of it all: We all have been united with God. He chose us in himself before the world was, so all are crucified with him, all of us. He’s crucified on these garments. This is the cross (Phil. 2:7).
The next is the entombment, that’s the second. You are entombed within your own skull, that’s where you are entombed. That is Golgotha. That’s the great sepulcher where Jesus Christ is buried (Rom. 6:5, John 19 :17).
The third is the resurrection. On the third day the earth came up out of the deep, out of the deep the earth came (Gen. 1:10). So three is a symbol or a number of resurrection, as eight is. Eight is the grand one. So on the third day he resurrects. You awaken within your skull to find yourself entombed, and then you come out (Rom. 6:4). The coming out: The
symbol of your birth from above is present in the form of a little infant wrapped in swaddling clothes. That’s number four (Luke 2:12).
Number five, the discovery of David, you find David. David is the Son of God, “Thou art my son; today I have begotten thee” (Ps. 2:7). You find him and he calls you “Father” (Ps. 89:26). Then and only then do you know who you really are: there’s only God in this world. You know even though you are limited by this flesh exactly who you are. But while you wear it, it’s like a grand pianist who could sit at the greatest instrument in the world, if you put a mitt upon him, what would he do with the instrument? The greatest technician in the world, sit him down at any grand piano that is beautifully tuned, everything is perfect, and he is the master of masters, but cover him with a mitt and ask him to play. Well, this [body] is the mitt that covers God…this is the veil. And so you find David, and you find him on the inside of your own being and he calls you “Father” and you know who you are. Here is this wonderful being that reveals you as God the Father. So that is the fifth.
Then the sixth is the tearing of the curtain of the temple, which is your own body, from top to bottom, and severing you in two (Zech. 14:4; Heb. 10:19,20). At the base of that spine of yours, the blood of God, the golden liquid living light, and you know it is yourself. You fuse with it—this is the seventh—and up you go in serpentine form…all fulfilling scripture (Jn. 3:14).
Then the eighth is the seal of the Holy Spirit upon you by the descent of the dove (Neat. 3:16). You do exactly what you’re told in scripture. When the dove returns to the ark, he puts out his hand and takes the dove in, and the dove comes into the ark to him. That is the seal of God’s work. And so the dove does come, which is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, and seals you forever. You are sealed to an inheritance that is imperishable. You still wear the gloves, you still wear the veil, until your time comes at the end of a very short interval, when you take it off and the world calls you dead. And then, for that first moment in eternity, you really have returned to eternal life.
So here, the greatest of all the blessings is simply a strong Imagination, a clear wonderful idea, and a determinate vision of things as you would like them to be, completely fixed in your mind. You can start on this level. And I tell you, the story of the gospel is the idea fixed in the mind of God for you. He will not waver, he will not falter. But on this level, while we are veiled as we are, and shut out, we can play it and cushion our world and make it a lovely world for ourselves and our friends. Just as our friend did this for himself on the golf course, we can do it for another. We can do it for anyone in this world. You can take anyone that you love in this world and you should (??) and you will (??) at all. It’s all one, anyway. You can take one who cannot do for themselves what they want to do. You will wear them as though you were the other and you will give to yourself what they could not give to themselves. And they will get it, things will break for them, lovely things. Not things that you imagined, not something that you plotted and planned, out of the nowhere the whole thing will simply work for them. When it works for them, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you used God’s law wisely. To use God’s law wisely is always to use it lovingly. Whenever you use your Imagination lovingly on behalf of another, you’re actually mediating God to that other. And then the whole thing unfolds within this world.
So in the end, not one is greater than the other, because all, everyone, is God. So in the end, you can truly say, as we’re told in Ephesians (4:4): “There’s only one body, one Spirit, one God and Father of us all, who is above all, through all, in all,” only one. So I stood in the presence of the one, incorporated into that one, without loss of identity. So I know I am that body…the body of the risen Christ. And may I tell you, God is man. So when Blake made that statement, “Thou art a man, God is no more; thy own humanity learn to adore,” man finds it so difficult to believe that the Infinite Being is man…and it is man {Everlasting Gospel ). We are the fragmented man, but all are being gathered together one by one by one to be united into a single man who is God.
Now let us go into the Silence.
Q: (Inaudible)
A: How open do you return to the same state? Well, it becomes constant, really. It’s like going home tonight, you always return to the same place where you live, really. That place to which one most constantly returns constitutes their dwelling place. So if you return night after night to the feeling of being wanted, being secure, being whatever you want in this world, that becomes a normal, natural dwelling place. So if you can actually make it tonight noturol, you’ll find yourself returning through the day to the feeling of being wanted or being happy or being whatever you want. So I can’t say you can number it once, twice, thrice or what not. It’s entirely up to you to make it natural. When it becomes natural so that the mind returns there constantly, that’s your dwelling place. As we’re told in scripture, “Where do you dwell?” they asked him. He said, “Come and see.” Where am I dwelling? Well, I dwell wherever I most constantly return in my Imagination. If in the course of a day someone is faced with a problem and they find themselves thinking all day long on that problem, that’s where they’re dwelling. Though they go to the Waldorf Astoria, the body is there, but they’re not dwelling there. So where is a man dwelling?
Tonight we have in our world many a person, many who are dwelling in some wonderful neighborhood, with outward appearances of dignity and security, but they know what they’ve done and they know that the hounds are on them. So they’re dwelling where they know the hound is going to find them. Embezzlement, you find it every day. You and I only get one little paper on the West Coast, but there are thousands of papers across this country. In every little hamlet you find men who are prominent in the eyes of the world, in their environment, who are dwelling where they know what they’ve done, and they know that the hounds are against them or coming for them. You find it every day if you read the paper carefully.
So, where are you dwelling? I ask everyone to dwell this night in the house of Jesus Christ. Say, “I am Jesus Christ.” You may not be familiar with all that he taught and all that is said of him in scripture,for the whole Bible is about Jesus Christ. The entire Old Testament writes only about Jesus Christ, and the New fulfills it. So if you just simply say, “I am he” and try to feel it…the average person would feel embarrassed to feel it and feel that’s blasphemy. And others wouldn’t dare…they wouldn’t want it. I had a friend of mine, a very successful playwright—he had, I think, three very successful Broadway plays; I know one ran over a year—and he and I would always discuss this. He said, “No, I have no time for that. I’m afraid of it.” Well, just about two years ago he was watching TV, he got up to go to the bathroom and fell; he was gone. He is still waiting before he would dare assume it. He thought the fleshpots were far more attractive…that sex to him was such a marvelous thing in this world. He’s, well, he’s ten years my senior. He still was living in the dream of that sort of thing in this world. Well, he’s now clothed in another garment, playing a part based upon what he needs, for God is infinite compassion. But he had the chance here…(tape runs out).
