|
The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 100
RELIGION IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE
100:0.1
THE experience of dynamic religious living transforms
the mediocre individual into a personality of idealistic
power. Religion ministers to the progress of all through
fostering the progress of each individual, and the
progress of each is augmented through the achievement of
all.
100:0.2
Spiritual growth is mutually stimulated by intimate
association with other religionists. Love supplies the
soil for religious growth -- an objective lure in the
place of subjective gratification -- yet it yields the
supreme subjective satisfaction. And religion ennobles
the commonplace drudgery of daily living.
1. RELIGIOUS GROWTH
100:1.1
While religion produces growth of meanings and
enhancement of values, evil always results when purely
personal evaluations are elevated to the levels of
absolutes. A child evaluates experience in accordance
with the content of pleasure; maturity is proportional
to the substitution of higher meanings for personal
pleasure, even loyalties to the highest concepts of
diversified life situations and cosmic relations.
100:1.2
Some persons are too busy to grow and are therefore in
grave danger of spiritual fixation. Provision must be
made for growth of meanings at differing ages, in
successive cultures, and in the passing stages of
advancing civilization. The chief inhibitors of growth
are prejudice and ignorance.
100:1.3
Give every developing child a chance to grow his own
religious experience; do not force a ready-made adult
experience upon him. Remember, year-by-year progress
through an established educational regime does not
necessarily mean intellectual progress, much less
spiritual growth. Enlargement of vocabulary does not
signify development of character. Growth is not truly
indicated by mere products but rather by progress. Real
educational growth is indicated by enhancement of
ideals, increased appreciation of values, new meanings
of values, and augmented loyalty to supreme values.
100:1.4
Children are permanently impressed only by the loyalties
of their adult associates; precept or even example is
not lastingly influential. Loyal persons are growing
persons, and growth is an impressive and inspiring
reality. Live loyally today -- grow -- and tomorrow will
attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to
become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a
tadpole.
100:1.5
The soil essential for religious growth presupposes a
progressive life of self-realization, the co-ordination
of natural propensities, the exercise of curiosity and
the enjoyment of reasonable adventure, the experiencing
of feelings of satisfaction, the functioning of the fear
stimulus of attention and awareness, the wonder-lure,
and a normal consciousness of smallness, humility.
Growth is also predicated on the discovery of selfhood
accompanied by self-criticism -- conscience, for
conscience is really the criticism of oneself by one's
own value-habits, personal ideals.
100:1.6
Religious experience is markedly influenced by physical
health, inherited temperament, and social environment.
But these temporal conditions do not inhibit inner
spiritual progress by a soul dedicated to the doing of
the will of the Father in heaven. There are present in
all normal mortals certain innate drives toward growth
and self-realization which function if they are not
specifically inhibited. The certain technique of
fostering this constitutive endowment of the potential
of spiritual growth is to maintain an attitude of
wholehearted devotion to supreme values.
100:1.7
Religion cannot be bestowed, received, loaned, learned,
or lost. It is a personal experience which grows
proportionally to the growing quest for final values.
Cosmic growth thus attends on the accumulation of
meanings and the ever-expanding elevation of values. But
nobility itself is always an unconscious growth.
100:1.8
Religious habits of thinking and acting are contributory
to the economy of spiritual growth. One can develop
religious predispositions toward favorable reaction to
spiritual stimuli, a sort of conditioned spiritual
reflex. Habits which favor religious growth embrace
cultivated sensitivity to divine values, recognition of
religious living in others, reflective meditation on
cosmic meanings, worshipful problem solving, sharing
one's spiritual life with one's fellows, avoidance of
selfishness, refusal to presume on divine mercy, living
as in the presence of God. The factors of religious
growth may be intentional, but the growth itself is
unvaryingly unconscious.
100:1.9
The unconscious nature of religious growth does not,
however, signify that it is an activity functioning in
the supposed subconscious realms of human intellect;
rather does it signify creative activities in the
superconscious levels of mortal mind. The experience of
the realization of the reality of unconscious religious
growth is the one positive proof of the functional
existence of the superconsciousness.
2. SPIRITUAL GROWTH
100:2.1
Spiritual development depends, first, on the maintenance
of a living spiritual connection with true spiritual
forces and, second, on the continuous bearing of
spiritual fruit: yielding the ministry to one's fellows
of that which has been received from one's spiritual
benefactors. Spiritual progress is predicated on
intellectual recognition of spiritual poverty coupled
with the self-consciousness of perfection-hunger, the
desire to know God and be like him, the wholehearted
purpose to do the will of the Father in heaven.
100:2.2
Spiritual growth is first an awakening to needs, next a
discernment of meanings, and then a discovery of values.
The evidence of true spiritual development consists in
the exhibition of a human personality motivated by love,
activated by unselfish ministry, and dominated by the
wholehearted worship of the perfection ideals of
divinity. And this entire experience constitutes the
reality of religion as contrasted with mere theological
beliefs.
100:2.3
Religion can progress to that level of experience
whereon it becomes an enlightened and wise technique of
spiritual reaction to the universe. Such a glorified
religion can function on three levels of human
personality: the intellectual, the morontial, and the
spiritual; upon the mind, in the evolving soul, and with
the indwelling spirit.
100:2.4
Spirituality becomes at once the indicator of one's
nearness to God and the measure of one's usefulness to
fellow beings. Spirituality enhances the ability to
discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings,
and discover goodness in values. Spiritual development
is determined by capacity therefor and is directly
proportional to the elimination of the selfish qualities
of love.
100:2.5
Actual spiritual status is the measure of Deity
attainment, Adjuster attunement. The achievement of
finality of spirituality is equivalent to the attainment
of the maximum of reality, the maximum of Godlikeness.
Eternal life is the endless quest for infinite values.
100:2.6
The goal of human self-realization should be spiritual,
not material. The only realities worth striving for are
divine, spiritual, and eternal. Mortal man is entitled
to the enjoyment of physical pleasures and to the
satisfaction of human affections; he is benefited by
loyalty to human associations and temporal institutions;
but these are not the eternal foundations upon which to
build the immortal personality which must transcend
space, vanquish time, and achieve the eternal destiny of
divine perfection and finaliter service.
100:2.7
Jesus portrayed the profound surety of the God-knowing
mortal when he said: "To a God-knowing kingdom believer,
what does it matter if all things earthly crash?"
Temporal securities are vulnerable, but spiritual
sureties are impregnable. When the flood tides of human
adversity, selfishness, cruelty, hate, malice, and
jealousy beat about the mortal soul, you may rest in the
assurance that there is one inner bastion, the citadel
of the spirit, which is absolutely unassailable; at
least this is true of every human being who has
dedicated the keeping of his soul to the indwelling
spirit of the eternal God.
100:2.8
After such spiritual attainment, whether secured by
gradual growth or specific crisis, there occurs a new
orientation of personality as well as the development of
a new standard of values. Such spirit-born individuals
are so remotivated in life that they can calmly stand by
while their fondest ambitions perish and their keenest
hopes crash; they positively know that such catastrophes
are but the redirecting cataclysms which wreck one's
temporal creations preliminary to the rearing of the
more noble and enduring realities of a new and more
sublime level of universe attainment.
3. CONCEPTS OF SUPREME VALUE
100:3.1
Religion is not a technique for attaining a static and
blissful peace of mind; it is an impulse for organizing
the soul for dynamic service. It is the enlistment of
the totality of selfhood in the loyal service of loving
God and serving man. Religion pays any price essential
to the attainment of the supreme goal, the eternal
prize. There is a consecrated completeness in religious
loyalty which is superbly sublime. And these loyalties
are socially effective and spiritually progressive.
100:3.2
To the religionist the word God becomes a symbol
signifying the approach to supreme reality and the
recognition of divine value. Human likes and dislikes do
not determine good and evil; moral values do not grow
out of wish fulfillment or emotional frustration.
100:3.3
In the contemplation of values you must distinguish
between that which
is value and
that which has
value. You must recognize the relation between
pleasurable activities and their meaningful integration
and enhanced realization on ever progressively higher
and higher levels of human experience.
100:3.4
Meaning is something which experience adds to value; it
is the appreciative consciousness of values. An isolated
and purely selfish pleasure may connote a virtual
devaluation of meanings, a meaningless enjoyment
bordering on relative evil. Values are experiential when
realities are meaningful and mentally associated, when
such relationships are recognized and appreciated by
mind.
100:3.5
Values can never be static; reality signifies change,
growth. Change without growth, expansion of meaning and
exaltation of value, is valueless -- is potential evil.
The greater the quality of cosmic adaptation, the more
of meaning any experience possesses. Values are not
conceptual illusions; they are real, but always they
depend on the fact of relationships. Values are always
both actual and potential -- not what was, but what is
and is to be.
100:3.6
The association of actuals and potentials equals growth,
the experiential realization of values. But growth is
not mere progress. Progress is always meaningful, but it
is relatively valueless without growth. The supreme
value of human life consists in growth of values,
progress in meanings, and realization of the cosmic
interrelatedness of both of these experiences. And such
an experience is the equivalent of God-consciousness.
Such a mortal, while not supernatural, is truly becoming
superhuman; an immortal soul is evolving.
100:3.7
Man cannot cause growth, but he can supply favorable
conditions. Growth is always unconscious, be it
physical, intellectual, or spiritual. Love thus grows;
it cannot be created, manufactured, or purchased; it
must grow. Evolution is a cosmic technique of growth.
Social growth cannot be secured by legislation, and
moral growth is not had by improved administration. Man
may manufacture a machine, but its real value must be
derived from human culture and personal appreciation.
Man's sole contribution to growth is the mobilization of
the total powers of his personality -- living faith.
4. PROBLEMS OF GROWTH
100:4.1
Religious living is devoted living, and devoted living
is creative living, original and spontaneous. New
religious insights arise out of conflicts which initiate
the choosing of new and better reaction habits in the
place of older and inferior reaction patterns. New
meanings only emerge amid conflict; and conflict
persists only in the face of refusal to espouse the
higher values connoted in superior meanings.
100:4.2
Religious perplexities are inevitable; there can be no
growth without psychic conflict and spiritual agitation.
The organization of a philosophic standard of living
entails considerable commotion in the philosophic realms
of the mind. Loyalties are not exercised in behalf of
the great, the good, the true, and the noble without a
struggle. Effort is attendant upon clarification of
spiritual vision and enhancement of cosmic insight. And
the human intellect protests against being weaned from
subsisting upon the nonspiritual energies of temporal
existence. The slothful animal mind rebels at the effort
required to wrestle with cosmic problem solving.
100:4.3
But the great problem of religious living consists in
the task of unifying the soul powers of the personality
by the dominance of LOVE. Health, mental efficiency, and
happiness arise from the unification of physical
systems, mind systems, and spirit systems. Of health and
sanity man understands much, but of happiness he has
truly realized very little. The highest happiness is
indissolubly linked with spiritual progress. Spiritual
growth yields lasting joy, peace which passes all
understanding.
100:4.4
In physical life the senses tell of the existence of
things; mind discovers the reality of meanings; but the
spiritual experience reveals to the individual the true
values of life. These high levels of human living are
attained in the supreme love of God and in the unselfish
love of man. If you love your fellow men, you must have
discovered their values. Jesus loved men so much because
he placed such a high value upon them. You can best
discover values in your associates by discovering their
motivation. If some one irritates you, causes feelings
of resentment, you should sympathetically seek to
discern his viewpoint, his reasons for such
objectionable conduct. If once you understand your
neighbor, you will become tolerant, and this tolerance
will grow into friendship and ripen into love.
100:4.5
In the mind's eye conjure up a picture of one of your
primitive ancestors of cave-dwelling times -- a short,
misshapen, filthy, snarling hulk of a man standing, legs
spread, club upraised, breathing hate and animosity as
he looks fiercely just ahead. Such a picture hardly
depicts the divine dignity of man. But allow us to
enlarge the picture. In front of this animated human
crouches a saber-toothed tiger. Behind him, a woman and
two children. Immediately you recognize that such a
picture stands for the beginnings of much that is fine
and noble in the human race, but the man is the same in
both pictures. Only in the second sketch you are favored
with a widened horizon. You therein discern the
motivation of this evolving mortal. His attitude becomes
praiseworthy because you understand him. If you could
only fathom the motives of your associates, how much
better you would understand them. If you could only know
your fellows, you would eventually fall in love with
them.
100:4.6
You cannot truly love your fellows by a mere act of the
will. Love is only born of thoroughgoing understanding
of your neighbor's motives and sentiments. It is not so
important to love all men today as it is that each day
you learn to love one more human being. If each day or
each week you achieve an understanding of one more of
your fellows, and if this is the limit of your ability,
then you are certainly socializing and truly
spiritualizing your personality. Love is infectious, and
when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is
more catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish
love is truly contagious. If each mortal could only
become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus
of love would soon pervade the sentimental
emotion-stream of humanity to such an extent that all
civilization would be encompassed by love, and that
would be the realization of the brotherhood of man.
5. CONVERSION AND MYSTICISM
100:5.1
The world is filled with lost souls, not lost in the
theologic sense but lost in the directional meaning,
wandering about in confusion among the isms and cults of
a frustrated philosophic era. Too few have learned how
to install a philosophy of living in the place of
religious authority. (The symbols of socialized religion
are not to be despised as channels of growth, albeit the
river bed is not the river.)
100:5.2
The progression of religious growth leads from
stagnation through conflict to co-ordination, from
insecurity to undoubting faith, from confusion of cosmic
consciousness to unification of personality, from the
temporal objective to the eternal, from the bondage of
fear to the liberty of divine sonship.
100:5.3
It should be made clear that professions of loyalty to
the supreme ideals -- the psychic, emotional, and
spiritual awareness of God-consciousness -- may be a
natural and gradual growth or may sometimes be
experienced at certain junctures, as in a crisis. The
Apostle Paul experienced just such a sudden and
spectacular conversion that eventful day on the Damascus
road. Gautama Siddhartha had a similar experience the
night he sat alone and sought to penetrate the mystery
of final truth. Many others have had like experiences,
and many true believers have progressed in the spirit
without sudden conversion.
100:5.4
Most of the spectacular phenomena associated with
so-called religious conversions are entirely psychologic
in nature, but now and then there do occur experiences
which are also spiritual in origin. When the mental
mobilization is absolutely total on any level of the
psychic upreach toward spirit attainment, when there
exists perfection of the human motivation of loyalties
to the divine idea, then there very often occurs a
sudden down-grasp of the indwelling spirit to
synchronize with the concentrated and consecrated
purpose of the superconscious mind of the believing
mortal. And it is such experiences of unified
intellectual and spiritual phenomena that constitute the
conversion which consists in factors over and above
purely psychologic involvement.
100:5.5
But emotion alone is a false conversion; one must have
faith as well as feeling. To the extent that such
psychic mobilization is partial, and in so far as such
human-loyalty motivation is incomplete, to that extent
will the experience of conversion be a blended
intellectual, emotional, and spiritual reality.
100:5.6
If one is disposed to recognize a theoretical
subconscious mind as a practical working hypothesis in
the otherwise unified intellectual life, then, to be
consistent, one should postulate a similar and
corresponding realm of ascending intellectual activity
as the superconscious level, the zone of immediate
contact with the indwelling spirit entity, the Thought
Adjuster. The great danger in all these psychic
speculations is that visions and other so-called mystic
experiences, along with extraordinary dreams, may be
regarded as divine communications to the human mind. In
times past, divine beings have revealed themselves to
certain God-knowing persons, not because of their mystic
trances or morbid visions, but in spite of all these
phenomena.
100:5.7
In contrast with conversion-seeking, the better approach
to the morontia zones of possible contact with the
Thought Adjuster would be through living faith and
sincere worship, wholehearted and unselfish prayer.
Altogether too much of the uprush of the memories of the
unconscious levels of the human mind has been mistaken
for divine revelations and spirit leadings.
100:5.8
There is great danger associated with the habitual
practice of religious daydreaming; mysticism may become
a technique of reality avoidance, albeit it has
sometimes been a means of genuine spiritual communion.
Short seasons of retreat from the busy scenes of life
may not be seriously dangerous, but prolonged isolation
of personality is most undesirable. Under no
circumstances should the trancelike state of visionary
consciousness be cultivated as a religious experience.
100:5.9
The characteristics of the mystical state are diffusion
of consciousness with vivid islands of focal attention
operating on a comparatively passive intellect. All of
this gravitates consciousness toward the subconscious
rather than in the direction of the zone of spiritual
contact, the superconscious. Many mystics have carried
their mental dissociation to the level of abnormal
mental manifestations.
100:5.10
The more healthful attitude of spiritual meditation is
to be found in reflective worship and in the prayer of
thanksgiving. The direct communion with one's Thought
Adjuster, such as occurred in the later years of Jesus'
life in the flesh, should not be confused with these
so-called mystical experiences. The factors which
contribute to the initiation of mystic communion are
indicative of the danger of such psychic states. The
mystic status is favored by such things as: physical
fatigue, fasting, psychic dissociation, profound
aesthetic experiences, vivid sex impulses, fear,
anxiety, rage, and wild dancing. Much of the material
arising as a result of such preliminary preparation has
its origin in the subconscious mind.
100:5.11
However favorable may have been the conditions for
mystic phenomena, it should be clearly understood that
Jesus of Nazareth never resorted to such methods for
communion with the Paradise Father. Jesus had no
subconscious delusions or superconscious illusions.
6. MARKS OF RELIGIOUS LIVING
100:6.1
Evolutionary religions and revelatory religions may
differ markedly in method, but in motive there is great
similarity. Religion is not a specific function of life;
rather is it a mode of living. True religion is a
wholehearted devotion to some reality which the
religionist deems to be of supreme value to himself and
for all mankind. And the outstanding characteristics of
all religions are: unquestioning loyalty and
wholehearted devotion to supreme values. This religious
devotion to supreme values is shown in the relation of
the supposedly irreligious mother to her child and in
the fervent loyalty of nonreligionists to an espoused
cause.
100:6.2
The accepted supreme value of the religionist may be
base or even false, but it is nevertheless religious. A
religion is genuine to just the extent that the value
which is held to be supreme is truly a cosmic reality of
genuine spiritual worth.
100:6.3
The marks of human response to the religious impulse
embrace the qualities of nobility and grandeur. The
sincere religionist is conscious of universe citizenship
and is aware of making contact with sources of
superhuman power. He is thrilled and energized with the
assurance of belonging to a superior and ennobled
fellowship of the sons of God. The consciousness of
self-worth has become augmented by the stimulus of the
quest for the highest universe objectives -- supreme
goals.
100:6.4
The self has surrendered to the intriguing drive of an
all-encompassing motivation which imposes heightened
self-discipline, lessens emotional conflict, and makes
mortal life truly worth living. The morbid recognition
of human limitations is changed to the natural
consciousness of mortal shortcomings, associated with
moral determination and spiritual aspiration to attain
the highest universe and superuniverse goals. And this
intense striving for the attainment of supermortal
ideals is always characterized by increasing patience,
forbearance, fortitude, and tolerance.
100:6.5
But true religion is a living love, a life of service.
The religionist's detachment from much that is purely
temporal and trivial never leads to social isolation,
and it should not destroy the sense of humor. Genuine
religion takes nothing away from human existence, but it
does add new meanings to all of life; it generates new
types of enthusiasm, zeal, and courage. It may even
engender the spirit of the crusader, which is more than
dangerous if not controlled by spiritual insight and
loyal devotion to the commonplace social obligations of
human loyalties.
100:6.6
One of the most amazing earmarks of religious living is
that dynamic and sublime peace, that peace which passes
all human understanding, that cosmic poise which
betokens the absence of all doubt and turmoil. Such
levels of spiritual stability are immune to
disappointment. Such religionists are like the Apostle
Paul, who said: "I am persuaded that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor anything else shall be able to separate us
from the love of God."
100:6.7
There is a sense of security, associated with the
realization of triumphing glory, resident in the
consciousness of the religionist who has grasped the
reality of the Supreme, and who pursues the goal of the
Ultimate.
100:6.8
Even evolutionary religion is all of this in loyalty and
grandeur because it is a genuine experience. But
revelatory religion is
excellent as
well as genuine. The new loyalties of enlarged spiritual
vision create new levels of love and devotion, of
service and fellowship; and all this enhanced social
outlook produces an enlarged consciousness of the
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
100:6.9
The characteristic difference between evolved and
revealed religion is a new quality of divine wisdom
which is added to purely experiential human wisdom. But
it is experience in and with the human religions that
develops the capacity for subsequent reception of
increased bestowals of divine wisdom and cosmic insight.
7. THE ACME OF RELIGIOUS LIVING
100:7.1
Although the average mortal of Urantia cannot hope to
attain the high perfection of character which Jesus of
Nazareth acquired while sojourning in the flesh, it is
altogether possible for every mortal believer to develop
a strong and unified personality along the perfected
lines of the Jesus personality. The unique feature of
the Master's personality was not so much its perfection
as its symmetry, its exquisite and balanced unification.
The most effective presentation of Jesus consists in
following the example of the one who said, as he
gestured toward the Master standing before his accusers,
"Behold the man!"
100:7.2
The unfailing kindness of Jesus touched the hearts of
men, but his stalwart strength of character amazed his
followers. He was truly sincere; there was nothing of
the hypocrite in him. He was free from affectation; he
was always so refreshingly genuine. He never stooped to
pretense, and he never resorted to shamming. He lived
the truth, even as he taught it. He was the truth. He
was constrained to proclaim saving truth to his
generation, even though such sincerity sometimes caused
pain. He was unquestioningly loyal to all truth.
100:7.3
But the Master was so reasonable, so approachable. He
was so practical in all his ministry, while all his
plans were characterized by such sanctified common
sense. He was so free from all freakish, erratic, and
eccentric tendencies. He was never capricious,
whimsical, or hysterical. In all his teaching and in
everything he did there was always an exquisite
discrimination associated with an extraordinary sense of
propriety.
100:7.4
The Son of Man was always a well-poised personality.
Even his enemies maintained a wholesome respect for him;
they even feared his presence. Jesus was unafraid. He
was surcharged with divine enthusiasm, but he never
became fanatical. He was emotionally active but never
flighty. He was imaginative but always practical. He
frankly faced the realities of life, but he was never
dull or prosaic. He was courageous but never reckless;
prudent but never cowardly. He was sympathetic but not
sentimental; unique but not eccentric. He was pious but
not sanctimonious. And he was so well-poised because he
was so perfectly unified.
100:7.5
Jesus' originality was unstifled. He was not bound by
tradition or handicapped by enslavement to narrow
conventionality. He spoke with undoubted confidence and
taught with absolute authority. But his superb
originality did not cause him to overlook the gems of
truth in the teachings of his predecessors and
contemporaries. And the most original of his teachings
was the emphasis of love and mercy in the place of fear
and sacrifice.
100:7.6
Jesus was very broad in his outlook. He exhorted his
followers to preach the gospel to all peoples. He was
free from all narrow-mindedness. His sympathetic heart
embraced all mankind, even a universe. Always his
invitation was, "Whosoever will, let him come."
100:7.7
Of Jesus it was truly said, "He trusted God." As a man
among men he most sublimely trusted the Father in
heaven. He trusted his Father as a little child trusts
his earthly parent. His faith was perfect but never
presumptuous. No matter how cruel nature might appear to
be or how indifferent to man's welfare on earth, Jesus
never faltered in his faith. He was immune to
disappointment and impervious to persecution. He was
untouched by apparent failure.
100:7.8
He loved men as brothers, at the same time recognizing
how they differed in innate endowments and acquired
qualities. "He went about doing good."
100:7.9
Jesus was an unusually cheerful person, but he was not a
blind and unreasoning optimist. His constant word of
exhortation was, "Be of good cheer." He could maintain
this confident attitude because of his unswerving trust
in God and his unshakable confidence in man. He was
always touchingly considerate of all men because he
loved them and believed in them. Still he was always
true to his convictions and magnificently firm in his
devotion to the doing of his Father's will.
100:7.10
The Master was always generous. He never grew weary of
saying, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
Said he, "Freely you have received, freely give." And
yet, with all of his unbounded generosity, he was never
wasteful or extravagant. He taught that you must believe
to receive salvation. "For every one who seeks shall
receive."
100:7.11
He was candid, but always kind. Said he, "If it were not
so, I would have told you." He was frank, but always
friendly. He was outspoken in his love for the sinner
and in his hatred for sin. But throughout all this
amazing frankness he was unerringly
fair.
100:7.12
Jesus was consistently cheerful, notwithstanding he
sometimes drank deeply of the cup of human sorrow. He
fearlessly faced the realities of existence, yet was he
filled with enthusiasm for the gospel of the kingdom.
But he controlled his enthusiasm; it never controlled
him. He was unreservedly dedicated to "the Father's
business." This divine enthusiasm led his unspiritual
brethren to think he was beside himself, but the
onlooking universe appraised him as the model of sanity
and the pattern of supreme mortal devotion to the high
standards of spiritual living. And his controlled
enthusiasm was contagious; his associates were
constrained to share his divine optimism.
100:7.13
This man of Galilee was not a man of sorrows; he was a
soul of gladness. Always was he saying, "Rejoice and be
exceedingly glad." But when duty required, he was
willing to walk courageously through the "valley of the
shadow of death." He was gladsome but at the same time
humble.
100:7.14
His courage was equaled only by his patience. When
pressed to act prematurely, he would only reply, "My
hour has not yet come." He was never in a hurry; his
composure was sublime. But he was often indignant at
evil, intolerant of sin. He was often mightily moved to
resist that which was inimical to the welfare of his
children on earth. But his indignation against sin never
led to anger at the sinner.
100:7.15
His courage was magnificent, but he was never foolhardy.
His watchword was, "Fear not." His bravery was lofty and
his courage often heroic. But his courage was linked
with discretion and controlled by reason. It was courage
born of faith, not the recklessness of blind
presumption. He was truly brave but never audacious.
100:7.16
The Master was a pattern of reverence. The prayer of
even his youth began, "Our Father who is in heaven,
hallowed be your name." He was even respectful of the
faulty worship of his fellows. But this did not deter
him from making attacks on religious traditions or
assaulting errors of human belief. He was reverential of
true holiness, and yet he could justly appeal to his
fellows, saying, "Who among you convicts me of sin?"
100:7.17
Jesus was great because he was good, and yet he
fraternized with the little children. He was gentle and
unassuming in his personal life, and yet he was the
perfected man of a universe. His associates called him
Master unbidden.
100:7.18
Jesus was the perfectly unified human personality. And
today, as in Galilee, he continues to unify mortal
experience and to co-ordinate human endeavors. He
unifies life, ennobles character, and simplifies
experience. He enters the human mind to elevate,
transform, and transfigure it. It is literally true: "If
any man has Christ Jesus within him, he is a new
creature; old things are passing away; behold, all
things are becoming new."
100:7.19
Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.
*
|
.jpg)
