Neville Goddard Lecture, The Pure In Heart

The Pure In Heart

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THE PURE IN HEART

I think you are all familiar with the 6th Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” I daresay it would be unwise to pick and choose among the beatitudes, and yet I daresay most people look upon this beatitude as the particular star in the heavens. It really seems the most inaccessible, not only the promise, but the conditions that must be met in order for the promise to be fulfilled. We must be pure in heart to see God and what wouldn’t man give to see God! Yet, all he needs do in this world is fulfill this condition: to be pure in heart. What do we mean by “pure in heart?” Just what is it? First of all, may I tell you: you need not think of moral perfection, and certainly it does not refer in any way to sexual purity, for we are told by the same one who uttered the beatitude that the harlot given to lust will go into heaven before the Pharisee. The Pharisee was perfect in keeping the outward law, the washing of the outside of the cup, of the hands, of the feet and he abided by the law outwardly. Yet, he was told that the harlot given to lust would go into heaven before he did. So it is not that. What is the purity spoken of? “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” The Bible is a mystery. On the surface it seems simple and anyone should be able to understand that simple statement. Well, the Bible is not that simple. So what is this purity and what is the heart?

The word “pure” is “katharos” ([Gr.] “to cleanse”), which means, “clear; unalloyed; pure, pure gold.” It was used on a tract of land completely cleared of all trees, no obstruction, none whatsoever. Here it is pure gold. To understand it we must go all over the Bible to get it. In Psalm 73:1 we are told: “Truly God is good to the upright (Israel), to those who are “pure in heart.” So right away we set up Israel as the pure in heart. And then in the 1st chapter of John, Philip sees Nathaniel (which means “gift of God”) and says: “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathaniel looks at him, and at the moment is not quite sure that anything good could come out of Galilee. Jesus, looking at Nathaniel, said: “Behold, an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no guile.” (John 1:45-47) That is an ‘Israelite’ one in whom there is no guile, no deceit, incapable of duplicity. That is the true Israelite, “that is the heart.” Now, in Psalm 24:3-4 the question is asked: “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?” Then comes the response: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully.” Then you are told in the next line exactly what it means, “who does not lift his soul to what is false, who does not swear deceitfully.” “He will receive the blessing from the Lord, and vindication from the God of his salvation.” So we bring the whole thing down to one simple, simple point: a man incapable of deceit for personal gain.

If I tell you a story for amusement, where you and I can laugh together, that is not deceit. But if I tell it for personal gain, say in politics, in government, in religion, or in business, anytime I plot and plan a little scheme to get the better of another for my own personal gain then I am not pure in heart. So, he is looking for one who is pure in heart because no one but such a one can see God. No one can be brought into the presence of the Ancient of Days and be presented to him but the pure in heart. He may have no intellectual background or social background or financial background, nothing the world would recognize, but he is incapable of deceiving another for his own gain. That one has the heart of the Israelite. At the moment it is observed by God, he brings him into his presence and you see God. When you see God you see that only reality, and you become what you see. In that very moment, like a seal upon wax, the impression is made and you bear the image of God. Not on this physical garment, but you bear it on your eternal garment which was waiting for that moment in time when the heart was pure gold. You start with this homogeneous substance called the body. This simply contains all the minerals, all things. Then we are put through the furnaces of affliction. I speak of them as furnaces of experience. Every test in the world is given the individual by himself (but he does not know it) to do what is called, not the right thing, but the loving thing, where you could never deceive. And when you have been put through all these tests and you know, in spite of your own poverty or need, you would rather die than take advantage of another, then that heart becomes pure gold. Only it can receive the imprint of the King of kings. How he finds such a person (and this is the mystery he has been looking and looking) he finds him and he calls him David, after putting himself through all the furnaces of affliction.

He extracts the pure gold that can take his imprint and that he calls “David.” “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart.” (Acts 13:22-24). Here, for the first time, I have brought forth exactly what I want. “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart,” of which posterity God has brought forth a savior, Jesus, as he promised. The word “Jesse” actually means “I AM.” He is the father of David, so who is begetting that heart? I AM. You put yourself, unknowingly on your present level, into every situation in the world, to test that gold. For here you are imbedded in this homogeneous substance containing all things, but you have to extract only pure gold, and that pure gold is David. “I have found in David, a son of Jesse” (the son of I AM) “a man after my heart.” So I bring it out, and out of it now I make myself a pledge, and this is the pledge, as told us in 2 Samuel 7:12: “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your son after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will be his father, and he shall be my son.” Now the process begins. He has found him and from him he is going to bring forth his own likeness. He has found David, his only begotten son ‘pure gold’ and now God begins the process of making what he has brought forth into his own image. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” But you cannot make man until you first produce this pure metal, this pure gold. So God became imbedded in what is called a garment of flesh, and in it he moves through all the furnaces of experience until he can produce out of it the pure gold and then from it he now brings forth himself. He is going to make himself and making himself, he is making us individually.

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