The Urantia Book
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.
