Untitled lecture

What is the meaning of fl the statement: “Down with the bluebloods”?n13591 ¶1

What does the statement, “Down with the blue-bloods” mean? “Blueblood” in Scripture is church protocol, ex- ternal worship, ceremony; anything that is external is the “blueblood.” Down with all such worship! No matter howtthey justify it or tell you that it was in order. I was commanded to clear from my own mind’s eye all external worship. I don’t care how beautiful it appears to be in pageantry, it is not in order. It does nothing for the soul. You go to church and a man prays audibly, and you can’t get into the Silence. “Let us pray,” in a very solemn, solemn voice, he says; and then repeats all these words. That’s not what you want. You want to church to hear about God. And if you are going to pray, you pray for a friend’s recovery or a friend’s good fortune or your own recovery and your own good fortune; and you want something very tangible and right down here. And he’s leading with all this pompous, pom- pous stuff, and is crossing himself and crossing this, and genu- flecting that; and you see all the pageantry. He said, “Down with the bluebloods.” Down with all ceremony, all external rites whatsoever. That’s what I heard. The word “blueblood” has nothing to do with the social order. If you read the Scripture, he never once tried to change the social structure. Not once will you find in any part of Scripture where _— there was any attempt on the part of the central figure of Scrip- ture to change the social order. There were slaves in those days. There was no statement as to changes in structure. He only brought the message of Salvation, the message of redemption. And man has missed the thought and built all kinds of peculiar things round about it. I know, when I was a child in the Episcopal Church, why, the pageantry! All the little boys coming round with their col- lars; all the little ruffs and the red tunics. Oh, undoubtedly they looked very pretty to the mothers who saw them. I recall vividly when some one told my Mother that her boys should be in the choir; so she was persuaded by this very serious and inter- fering neighbor who was always giving advice to my Mother, -- she ; had two children. She couldn’t raise them well, but she thought she could tell my Mother how to raise her ten! So, my Mother said, “All lright, you*ve got to go and try out for the choir.” Well, we didn’t want the choir; we wanted to go and play football or cricket -- play all the games, go swimming, fishing; but we had to go and try out for the choir! Well, I was determ- ined I was not going to have a voice; and my brothers, I shared my knowledge with them. I was the fourth one. There were four of us, and so we all agreed that we were going to pretend that we had never heard singing before. So, when he struck a note on the organ, he struck C. We struck everything in the world but aC, — He said, “Don’t you have any ear? Try again.” We tried this one, that one, the other one, -- you never heard such caterwauling in your life! He said, “You go back and tell your Mother that I’ve - tried my best, and you just don’t have it. That’s all there is ~ to it.” Well, I thought, Now this is really fun! I am going to have a little fun before I go, too. Now, my eldest brother, Cecil, -- and so I said to Mr. Taggert, who was the organist; just as we were about to leave, I said to Mr. Taggert, “Oh, Mr. Taggert, my brother Cecil can whistle.” = Well, he could have killed met We all “broke up,” and Cecil couldn’t whistle unless he started laughing; so Mr. Taggert knew it was a joke, and dismissed us. But when we got out, he really could have killed me! I said, “He can whistle.” To see myself all dressed in this robe coming down on Sunday mornings, -- well, I wanted to get out and start whistling. So, we just beat that little neighbor at her own little game. But I was told in no uncertain terms: “Down with the blue- | bloods!” And it hasn’t a thing to do with any socalled “blueblood” in the world. If you want to feel that you are a blueblood, feel it. There are those in every walk of life who feel that they are in the highest of the social stratus. It’s perfectly all right. I wouldn’t change it at all. Leave it alone. I personally have never felt inferior to any one I’ve ever met. I have never in my life felt inferior to any one. I admire them if they havé money . -- much more than I have. I have little, and they have much, but > that doesn’t mean that I am impressed. Also, there are those who come into the world, and they have all the lovely things in the world. I admire them, -- go to their homes and admire all the beauty that they can afford, and lovely pieces; but it doesn’t make me feel inferior to them. I feel one with it all! My maid comes and cleans for me once a week. I like to look upon Doris as a friend. She’s a friend. I talk with her just as I would with a friend. She cleans for me and does all the lovely things that I wouldn’t do for myself; so I treat her as a friend. I can’t see that, because she works for me, she must be below me. On the. other hand, I can’t see, because some one has a billion dollars, that I should think him important. As some one said, ++ I think it was Lloyd George, -- he tried to put through the House of Commons a bill making some kind of a change in the land ownership of England; and he said to the entire House, -- he said, “You know, if you are all honest with yourselves, you all know that any Englishman can prove ownership to his land by tracing his ancestry back to the first one who stole it!” Well, that is just about what you will find in all kinds of fabulous things, but I don’t envy them. I’m all for it! IfI have a dollar whenIdie, I want my wife, if she survives .me, to have it. And if I had a million, I’d still want her to have it. Ps If she goes before I do, I want my children to have it. If they . inherit it, what’s wrong with that? I see not a thing wrong in that, because it comes within the code oftthat wonderful law, where it says: “Do unto others as vou would have them do unto — you.” Wouldn’t you like to receive a million dollars? Or, would you give it Back? Ali right, I wouldn’t give it back. I would take it. Well, the same thing is true of all inheritance laws. My father gave us all that he could; he gave the ten of us his entire estate. None of us gave it to the government, al- though they took much of it without asking.n13591 ¶2