textfiles/occult/URANTIA/p100.txt

             Urantia Book Paper 100 Religion In Human Experience
        SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET.

Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia
  : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On
Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The
 Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color
   The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary
  Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution
Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet
  The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden
The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In
 The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization
The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The
    Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes,
  Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And
   Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa
  Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings
In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The
    Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of
      Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The
  Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of
  The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And
 Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation
 Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals
                                      ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                    Paper 100 Religion In Human Experience

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

                               top of page - 1095

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

                               top of page - 1096

morontial, and the spiritual; upon the mind, in the evolving soul, and with the
indwelling spirit.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

In the contemplation of values you must distinguish between that which is value
and that which has value. You must recognize the relation between

                               top of page - 1097

pleasurable activities and their meaningful integration and enhanced
realization on ever progressively higher and higher levels of human experience.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

                               top of page - 1098

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.

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.

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.

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

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.)

The progression of religious growth leads from stagnation through conflict to
co-ordination, from insecurity to undoubting faith, from confusion of cosmic

                               top of page - 1099

consciousness to unification of personality, from the temporal objective to the
eternal, from the bondage of fear to the liberty of divine sonship.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The characteristics of the mystical state are diffusion of consciousness with
vivid islands of focal attention operating on a comparatively passive
intellect.

                               top of page - 1100

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

                               top of page - 1101

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.

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."

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.

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.

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

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!"

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.

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.

                               top of page - 1102

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.

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.

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."

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.

He loved men as brothers, at the same time recognizing how they differed in
innate endowments and acquired qualities. "He went about doing good."

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.

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."

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.

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

                               top of page - 1103

high standards of spiritual living. And his controlled enthusiasm was
contagious; his associates were constrained to share his divine optimism.

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.

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.

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.

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?"

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.

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."

[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]

                               top of page - 1104

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia
  : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On
Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The
 Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color
   The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary
  Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution
Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet
  The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden
The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In
 The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization
The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The
    Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes,
  Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And
   Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa
  Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings
In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The
    Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of
      Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The
  Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of
  The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And
 Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation
 Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals
  The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny
  Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The
  Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael

������������������������������������������������������������������������������Ŀ
�        //        �                   �                   �        �          �
�    The Social    �     The Real      �   Urantia Book    � Search � SiteMap! �
�     Prob...      �     Nature...     �       PA...       �        �          �
��������������������������������������������������������������������������������
//

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
������������������������������������������������������������������������������Ŀ
�  �  �  �  �  �  �           SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org),           �  �
�  �  �  �  �  �  �                http://www.spiritweb.org                 �  �
�  �  �  �  �  �  �           Webmaster <webmaster@spiritweb.org>           �  �
�  �  �  �  �  �  �                                                         �  �
�  �  �  �  �  �  �      ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND.      �  �
�  �  �  �  �  �  � DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA,  �  �
�  �  �  �  �  �  �                        AUSTRALIA                        �  �
�  �  �  �  �  �  �                                                         �  �
��������������������������������������������������������������������������������