God in Sayville

One day twelve years ago there arrived in Sayville, L. I., where I. T. & T.'s giant wireless masts rise out of a sea of scrub oak, a baldheaded, wizened little Negro with God on his mind. He opened a free employment agency, found many a job for black men and white. Two years later he bought a small frame house at No. 72 Macon St., took in the homeless, fed them, clothed them, black & white. His disciples increased, his house grew, followers came on foot, in limousines, by the busload. Sayville's Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance forbidding parking for more than 30 minutes in Macon Street. Rev. Major J. Divine, the bald little Negro, provided free parking space on all the land surrounding the three big houses into which had spread his thriving cult of '"Heaven."

By last winter Heaven had grown too noisy for Sayville. Residents began to move from Macon Street. The village police force grew weary directing traffic, answering complaints against women who shrieked: "Peace! Peace! Oooooh, ain't it wonderful!" Nevertheless, Preacher Divine continued to feed & clothe a hundred-odd people, to serve six meals a day, each meal enormous. On his wall hung two signs. One said: "PEACE. CIGARS, CIGARETTES AND INTOXICATING LIQUORS NOT ALLOWED. IT'S WONDERFUL." The other: "NOTICE. VISITORS AND CALLERS NOT ALLOWED UPSTAIRS."

Sayvillians, estimating that it cost over $30,000 a year to run the Divine establishment, pointed out that the Father had no visible means of support, persistently asked where he got his money. Preacher Divine explained: "I am a free gift to mankind. . . . Judas sold or betrayed the materialized Word of God for thirty (30) pieces of silver. But I, as a free gift to mankind, have been given." Suspected as the givers were some of the handsome, well-dressed white "angels" who mixed with the black in Heaven, shrieking of Peace.

Last week, Sayville's patience exhausted, Rev. Major J. Divine was on trial before Supreme Court Justice Lewis J. Smith in Mineola. Two white believers, Helen Faust, Preacher Divine's 26-year-old secretary, and one James Maynard Matthews, testified that they believed the Father was God Himself. Said Believer Matthews: "I believe he is the perfected expression of God. I believe Heaven sends him his money direct." Testified Eva Connelly, nonbeliever: "Some of Divine's visitors shouted at me: 'Hello, Blondie.' And when I telephoned him to ask him to stop the noise he said: 'Do you know who you're talking to? This is God Himself.' "

Charged Justice Smith: "There may be those who believe this defendant is God. There are undoubtedly many who believe he is not God. . . . One cannot use religion as a cloak for the commission of a crime."

Twelve Mineola jurors declared Sayville's Divine to be a nuisance.

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