Religious Experience through Loyalty to a Great Cause
H. N. Wieman

Experiment in Loyalty to a Cause

1. The Problem

The great cause is the all inclusive enterprise of enlarging and refining the life of man, an enterprise in which we each may have a share. When we consider this cause, and how to make personal connection with it, we are immediately confronted with a practical problem.

Can I be sure that the specific thing which I find to do is wholly and significantly of service to this cause? Can I be sure that I am doing, or can do, anything for the cause which is sufficiently worth while to command my full devotion? The cause is all right, but my part in it -- that is the problem. Can I be sure that I, even with the best intentions and utmost effort, shall not be producing at least some results through my work that positively obstruct the cause? That such results do ensue is evident to anyone who with unbiased mind will carefully observe his own experience and study the historic record. Every specific and definite form of human need in this evil world will, when satisfied by me in so far as I am able to satisfy it, lead to evil as well as good. There is no church or other institution with which I can work which will not involve me in evil. There is no campaign or enterprise or group of men with which I may ally myself which is not tainted and productive of evil. And many times the evil results are greater than the good. Every concrete specific undertaking which men have begun with high hope and great enthusiasm has been disappointing in the end to those who were sufficiently observant, humble, and open-minded to see the evil and futility of their efforts along with whatever good may have resulted.

Men do not necessarily think the matter out in the way we have presented it; they do not analyze their feelings; but their problem with respect to any great cause brought to their attention is often of just this sort. They do not respond with full devotion either because the cause is not sufficiently definite, concrete, and close'at hand so they can make direct connection with it, or else the specific and concrete thing presented has none of that indubitable and overmastering urgency and grandeur that can command their complete loyalty. You and I and most men would respond readily and completely and passionately if we could be sure that the concrete and immediate piece of work accessible to us was altogether pure and glorious, and that our devotion to it would really count for something of importance in service of the great cause. But as soon as a cause becomes embodied in concrete form in this evil and complicated world it ceases to be pure. It cannot command our hearts, and it should not. The evil is so intricately involved in the good, the tares so mixed with the wheat, and there is so much uncertainty concerning just what is the wheat and what the tares, that we cannot make direct connection with the great cause.

Here, then, is our practical problem: How to find the great cause in such form that we can yield our lives to it.

One way to solve this problem is that of the fanatic. He blinds himself. to the evil and tawdry features involved in the enterprise to which he gives his allegiance. He has found a "great cause," to be sure. He may call it Christ or socialism, Kingdom of Heaven or vegetarian diet, saving souls or pacifism. The slogan he uses makes little difference. The point is that he is able to esteem his cause so great, and can give it his unreserved devotion, only because he will not admit what others less prejudiced can plainly see. He will not admit that the cause as served by him is mixed with all manner of worthless and evil things, and in the end may result in as much harm as good. He makes himself think he is engaged in something wonderful when he is not. Such fanaticism is not the transfiguring loyalty which we need and crave. It is not the loyalty which the preceding part of this paper has presented. Yet we can see all about us and read in the historic records that no matter how devoted men may have been, and no matter how sure of serving a great cause, they have always wrought evil as well as good, and often the results of their efforts, when closely examined, can be seen to have been quite futile.

Where and how shall we find our cause, we who refuse to deceive ourselves and follow the fanatic? How can we catch the transfiguring devotion without surrendering to fanaticism?

2. The Proposition

This world has some possibility for maximum good which can be achieved through right adjustment of the different factors which enter into the making of it. What this possible maximum good may be we do not know. Eye hath not seen it nor ear heard, neither hath it entered the heart of man in the form of any dream or vision. Our thoughts concerning its nature may be mistaken. Indeed, our ideas of it in great part must he mistaken, else we would not disagree about it so radically and violently. And our ways of serving that cause must be mistaken in great part else we would not so commonly work at cross-purposes. But despite these facts it is a self-evident truth to say that among all the possibilities for good and evil which are inherent in this universe there is one or more which is the maximum good. This genuine possibility for maximum good inherent in the universe may be called the cause of Christ, the will of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, the utmost welfare of mankind, etc., but its specific nature and the best way to promote it is something about which only the fanatic is sure; and he is probably most mistaken of all.

There is no straight-cut and definite course of action known to us which will lead directly to the actualization of this possible maximum good. It is too mysterious, too ill defined in our own minds; the processes of life are too intricately interwoven, and we are too ignorant of the outcome of any suggested course of procedure. There is, however, one course of procedure and one way of living in which we can give our whole lives in complete loyalty to that unknown good.

3. The Method

The intelligent method of loyalty to the supreme but unknown good consists in throwing the light of observation and experimental investl gation over all the processes of life. That means first of all that we shall examine ourselves and constantly observe ourselves to see what habits, what impulses, what mental attitudes produce what consequences, and try to ascertain the value of these consequences.

Secondly, it means that we shall constantly observe what customs, what mutual adaptations within our own family and between ourselves and other intimate associates, yield deeper community of heart and mind and greater co-operation. Thirdly, it means that we shall constantly observe and investigate what consequences result from what social customs, and other conditions generally in the world round about us. Of course no man can cover all these fields of investigation. But every man can take his own special line of endeavor, whatever it may be, and make it a field of constant and searching observation and experimental investigation to the end of ascertaining what results for good or ill may ensue. Also, every man can make his own personal conduct in dealing with his own intimate associates a matter of search' ng inquiry.

What constitutes the significance of this method? Its significance lies in this: that we rest our hope for the ultimate actualization of supreme good, not on the success of any specific practical enterprise, but upon the slowly garnered wisdom which is yielded by this method of indefatigable observation. It means that we shall turn our very failures and worst disasters into tools for the achievement of this ultimate good, inasmuch as such failures and disasters yield the largest harvest of wisdom if we constantly keep in the clear light of consciousness, just so far as we can, all the factors which led up to the failure or disaster.

Seasons for cultivating and practicing most intensely this observation are seasons of worship. Where are we going? What have we been doing? What attitudes on our part and on the part of humankind have produced what results, and what are the values of these? Such questions ought properly to find some answer in the season of worship. For worship ought to be a mountain top whence we can survey our lives and the lives of men. We are not saying this is all there is to worship; but this is an essential part of it. Of course, however, the observation of life cannot be limited to worship. Our whole point is that it must be constantly practiced. But nothing can be constantly practiced unless we set aside certain times for its special cultivation. Worship is such a time.

Some may object to this proposed method of observation, thinking that it will destroy the great joys and enthusiasms of life. Sometimes, they say, we must abandon ourselves to some "fine careless rapture," and disregard consequences. Now it is true that constant, critical observation of self and others and life as a whole does destroy joy and enthusiasm except as this constant critical examination is made the embodiment and expression of passionate devotion to the supreme cause. And that is precisely what we are proposing.

We suggest this method of solving the problem of how to make personal connection with the great cause: (1) constant, searching, critical, and experimental observation in everything we do to promote the good; (2) measure our service to the good not merely by objective achievement but by the wisdom gained in how to do good. Thus we shall transmute our very failures, disappointments, disillusionments, and difficulties into gain. We can begin by applying this method and assuming this attitude in any minor undertaking which we have begun or are about to begin. (3) We can take certain seasons of worship for special examination of what we have done, how we have done it, and also for reaching conclusions on the grounds of these observations.

The results to look for as tests of this method are: (1) change in the kind of things we undertake; (2) change in the wav we go about doing it; (3) increase in the final value of what we do; (4) transfer of our highest loyalty and deepest enthusiasm from the special task to that unknown good which we serve by slowly bringing it to light through the accumulated wisdom of history, our chief service being assimilation of, and contribution to, this wisdom of life. In this way lives which fail magnificently may be great successes. Perhaps this kind of failure is the genius of Christianity and the spirit of Christ.

Religious Experience through the Struggle of Life
H. N. Wieman

Experiments in the Religious Experience of Struggle

1. The Practical Problem of Struggle

The preceding part of this study has demonstrated the importance of struggle. The greater goods of life have rarely been attained save in those circumstances where men have been forced to struggle. The greatest goods and the ever higher levels of good can be attained only when men continue to struggle after they are no longer forced to it by danger and deprivation.

Here we have the great practical problem which is becoming ever more urgent and vital as our civilization makes life more easeful and luxurious. The problem is twofold: (1) How can men be induced to struggle for ever greater goods when necessity no longer compels them; (2) how can they keep on when discouraged, weary, or depressed with sense of failure. The first of these two parts of the problem is not so widely recognized as the second, but we believe it is much more serious. The old sad story of civilizations reaching a certain height of excellence and then sinking back into decadence; the old story of fathers struggling up from low levels of life only to see their sons become flabby and weak, if not vicious and dissipated; of individuals achieving a noble success, but at the age of forty or fifty beginning to decay morally, mentally, physically this old story will continue as long as we fail to keep up the great struggle of life after the scourge of necessity no longer whips us into the fight. This applies especially to the most highly endowed. These gifted men can often get what they want without one-tenth the effort others expend. So they live their lives without making that great contribution to human welfare which they could make if they exerted themselves, and all human life is impoverished thereby.

Here, then, is the twofold vital problem involved in struggle: How can we keep it up when comfortable or when discouraged?

Let us first state how it cannot be accomplished. It cannot be accomplished merely by making up our minds to do it. Resolution is not enough. Resolution may produce spurts of effort, bult it can never keep us striving with that persistency and dauntless drive which is the only road to the highest goods. The futility of all such moral volition arises out of the fact that persistent and potent struggle depends upon the release of personal energy; and personal energy can be released only when the individual is rightly stimulated. Only those situations that arouse intense desire or fear or anger or other such deep-seated emotion can release within us that amount of energy which is required for great struggle. In scientific terms, it is a problem of organic chemistry. Energy is locked up in the organism. It must be unlocked before struggle, long-continued and powerful, is possible. No matter how conscientious, no matter how high minded, idealistic, and spiritual a man may be, if the needed energy is not unlocked within him by the required stimulation, he simply does not have it in a form available for struggle.

Here is where science steps forward to show the futility of morality, culture, and education without religion when it comes to this problem of struggle. The utmost moral good will in the world cannot keep one struggling if he does not have the energy. Psychology and history of religion and the testimony of deeply religious people indicate that religion can release energy in great quantity. It is very certain that morality without religion cannot do this. One of the chief reasons why people so commonly put their trust in morality, culture, and education rather than religion is because they fail to see this basic truth about human nature. Food-getting, sex, fear, anger will release energy. But when we are at ease or when we are discouraged, how shall we get it? That is the great problem. Religion is the answer.

The purpose of the personal experiment in religion to be described later will be to discover that way of practicing religion which will release energy for struggle. But before we present that experiment we must look a little more closely into the sources of personal energy in order to make plain that personal experiment in religion is the only possible way to find how to get energy for struggle when we are at ease or discouraged.

2. The Sources of Personal Energy

The amount of personal energy available for struggle depends upon two conditions, one physiological, the other psychological. The physiological condition is stimulation of visceral processes, pre-eminently the endocrine glands. The psychological condition is freedom from mental conflict, in other words, peace. Let us briefly examine each of these in order.

When the endocrine glands are stimulated and the visceral adjustments are made through which maximum energy is released, the whole process produces a mental state called emotion. Fear, anger, and the emotional phases of desire, aspiration, hope, joy, exultation, excitement generally, are examples. But the important thing, be it remembered, is not the conscious state called emotion; the important thing is the visceral readjustments, glandular processes, and consequent release of energy. The conscious state, the emotion, simply serves to inform us that the energy is now released and made available for struggle. When this energy is drained off immediately and completely in some struggle that is going on, one does not experience the emotion to any marked degree, even though energy is being released in great quantities.

Men vary greatly with respect to the amount of personal energy at their disposal. Some are so constituted organically that they constantly have more energy than others. This organic constitution cannot, so far as we know, be changed by training or stimulation. But given this organic constitution, a man may be subjected to such stimulation as to release far more energy than he otherwise would. Religious stimulation can do this, perhaps, more powerfully than any other. It cannot change the organic constitution, but it can stimulate that constitution so that it will yield all the energy of which it is capable.

Let us turn now to the second source of energy, the psychological. It is not so much a source as a determining condition. It is mental harmony; it is dynamic peace. It is that plastic organization of responses such that each impulse supports the others and none frustrates the others. If there is conflict in our minds between two or more opposed desires, one or both of which may be subconscious, our energies will be consumed in this conflict and hence rendered unavailable for struggle with things outside ourselves. If all our energy is consumed in struggle between our own impulses we have none left for struggle with environmental difficulties. Hence our wishes and desires must be harmonious with one another if we are to have sufficient energy for the greater struggles. This inner conflict appears in consciousness, in the form of worry, fret, anxiety, melancholy, excitement, and, in extreme forms, delusion and insanity. One may suffer from this mental conflict and not know what is wrong with him. The conflict may be subconscious in part or whole.

We can now see the nature of the problem which we have to solve by personal experiment. We must find some way (i) to stimulate those glandular and other processes through which energy is released, and (2) bring peace of mind by removing those mental conflicts which waste and divert our vital energies.

3. Personal Experiment in Religion for Release of Energy

Let us call to mind that the aspect of the universe called God is a pervasive aspect constantly and intimately operative in our lives and in the world round about us. In so far as we yield ourselves to it, indescribable possibilities for good hover over us and loom before us. But in so far as we yield ourselves to the destructive aspects of the universe great evils hang over us and open before us. At regular seasons of worship let us cultivate this sense of divine presence, with the attendant possibilities for good and evil.

But I we must not stop with this sense of divine presence and vivid apprehension of the attendant possibilities. Each of us must recognize, and through regular seasons of meditation clarify, the definite part which he is fitted to play in bringing the divine aspect of the universe into dominance, with all the consequent good , and in reducing the evil aspects with their consequent disasters. Each of us, by reason of unique individuality and circumstance, has a definite part in this vast process. This part should be formulated by us as clearly as possible. It should be put into words and repeated in seasons of meditative worship, changing the wording as our vocation grows clearer with the passage of time. Thus a life purpose will grow upon us. Within this life-purpose specific objectives should be verbally defined in so far as we are able. This should be continued at regular seasons of worship until we Attain a sense of destiny and become possessed of a passion. With some this sense of destiny and drive of passion will be much stronger than with others. But I believe everyone can achieve a driving purpose in life by practicing regularly and for a sufficient length of time the method described. A certain season set apart each Sabbath day might be used in this way. Occasional vacations could be spent in like manner. We can imagine no better way of spending a vacation than in such meditation and worship.

What we have described must be carefully distinguished from mere resolution or moral determination. The method before us consists in exposing one's self to the stimulus of certain facts until they have worked in us the physiological and psychological readjustments through which personal energy is released. It is not resolution; it is remaking of the personality through exposure to the stimulation of supremely significant facts. The consequent state of body and mind can become a permanent disposition by regular re-exposure. This exposure is a kind of worship.

There are other problems involved in struggle besides finding the required energy. There is the problem of directing the energy to worthy ends. One may struggle to do trivial or evil things. There is the problem of efficiency. One may expend his energy in waste motion. There is the problem of keeping gracious, sympathetic, and appreciative toward persons and undertakings outside one's own work. He who struggles is often harsh and even cruel in his zeal. We have not discussed these three problems, but we believe they are automatically solved in the practice of religion which we have proposed. The same experiment in religion which releases energy will guard against these dangers also.

The practice we have described should give rise to a growing passion. It is the passion that results from finding one's destiny and surrendering to the clutch of it. Passion means maximum release of energy. Historical records indicate that no matter how frail in body one may be, such passion and sense of destiny releases energy. One may turn to flame and burn up, but as long as he lasts he has the energy needed for struggle which cannot be choked by ease nor quenched by discouragement.

Religious Experience through the Influence of the Beautiful
H. N. Wieman

Experiments in the Religious Experience of Beauty

1. The Religious Experience of Beauty

There are four ways to experience beauty. One is the way of the aesthete; the second the way of the artist; the third the way of the moralist; the fourth, the religious way. The same person may experience beauty in all four of these ways at different times according to his mood. But he can scarcely have all four experiences at the same time; and generally he will experience beauty in one of these ways rather than the others unless he specially cultivates some other. We wish to suggest a method for cultivating the religious way of experiencing beauty. Our first step must be to clarify and distinguish the religious way as over against these others.

The aesthete finds an ecstacy in the experience of beauty which is for him the supreme good. He seeks nothing more; he wants more. This state of feeling is the end result for him. He seeks beauty where it may be found, but he does not create it. He cultivates his capacity for his appreciation that he may enter more deeply into the experience. But he does nothing more about it. When he has attained the highest ecstacy there is nothing more save to prolong that state of feeling.

The experience of the artist is very different. He is inspired by beauty to create a beautiful object. The joy of beauty is for him constructive. It is the stern joy of wringing from out the raw materials of nature a thing of beauty. It may be beautiful sound, as in music, or beautiful movement, as in the dance, or beauty of rhythm and imagery, as in poetry. But there is a strenuosity and drive in the experience of the artist that is not found in that of the aesthete.

The moralist finds still another good in beauty. Beauty stirs him to strenuous and constructive endeavor. In this respect he is like the artist and different from the aesthete. But his endeavor is not with the materials of any fine art. It is with the materials out of which we construct the good life. Beauty helps him immensely in his endeavor to achieve the good life. It makes the good life more alluring. When moral ideals are clothed in beauty, as in Tennyson's Idylls of the King, and in many songs and sermons, they inspire to moral endeavor as they could not do in any other guise.

But the most profound experience of beauty is religious. The aesthete misses it; so does the artist and moralist, except as these become religious. When we say that the aesthete, the moralist, and the artist must become religious in order to have the most profound experience of beauty, we do not mean that they must subscribe to any creed, nor join a church, although they might well do this. All we mean is that this most profound experience of beauty is religious, and he who has it thereby to that degree becomes religious.

What is this most profound and religious experience of beauty.? We must try to indicate its character, at least to the point where it can be recognized.

In this most profound experience beauty makes us aware of a reality which is richer and deeper and more marvelous than anything we can dream or conceive. This reality is not anything we perceive in the beautiful object. It is not anything we fancy. We do not here refer to bright visions that may come to us as we listen to music or to a story or contemplate any other beautiful thing. This reality which enters our awareness when we are under the spell of beauty is quite unimaginable. It is beyond the reach of our dreams just as truly as it eludes our sentences. We feel it like a ghostly presence. It seems almost to be right there, and yet it is nowhere.

Two questions must be answered concerning this experience: (1) Is this sense of unimaginable reality an illusion? (2) In what sense and under what conditions is it religious?

Answer to the first question will be found through an examination of the psychology of this experience. In this profound experience of beauty the object is so formed and so contemplated that it arouses in us a multiplicity of plastic and subtle and tentative and novel responses. Now any response aroused in us which is strange and new, especially if it consist of a complicated interplay of many tentative and novel responses, will give us this sense of strange and wonderful and unimaginable reality.

The sense of unimaginable reality which comes to us in this psychological state is not an illusion if we understand this reality to be that wholly different world which would be ours if we so reconstructed ourselves and our environment that interaction between self and environment would be very different from what it now is. The spell of beauty does not engender illusion because this profound religious experience of beauty is precisely the experience which makes a wholly different world possible. It does so because it arouses innumerable subtle, tentative, and novel impulses. These impulses provide ' the necessary psychological material out of which new and different habits can be formed. This possibility of new and different habits makes possible that reconstruction of self and environment which would bring about a different world. Since beauty engenders that psychological state out of which the required habits might be developed, it makes new and different and unimaginable worlds a genuine possibility. The psychological state induced in us by beauty is the first prerequisite to the achievement of a different world.

So we conclude that the sense of unimaginable reality which comes to us under the spell of beauty is not an illusion if it be regarded as awareness not of something actual, but of something possible.

In the presence of great beauty one becomes as a little child. A little child is capable of great modification of behavior and development. Therefore the doors of possibility stand wide open before him. With advancing age these doors close one after another. But the religious experience of beauty, by arousing many plastic, novel, and tentative impulses, preserves our youth. It keeps us plastic. It preserves and it restores our capacity for growth and for multiform adaptability. It opens many a door that was closed even for the child. It causes the man to turn and become as a little child; and thereby his entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven becomes a possibility. Beauty does truly usher us to the borderland of unexplored reality.

But we have not yet explained how this experience is religious. Merely to become aware of genuine but unimaginable reality is not in itself religious. It becomes religious only when one goes forth to seek that new and different world by living the life of faith.

The life of faith may mean either one of two things: It may mean waiting in the hope that death will take us into that other world; or it may mean the aggressive search and striving for the ways and means by which to achieve that other world here on earth. This search and striving requires experimental ventures in ways of conducting one's life, which is one form of faith. Also it means searching after the best relations with God, because God is that factor or character in the universe which will bring the best possible world into actuality when we establish the required relations with him. We know God will do that because God is that by definition. No matter how one conceives God, he always thinks of God as that particular being who will bring the greatest good to mankind when men establish right relations with him.

Therefore we say the experience of beauty is religious when it does two things: (1) when it gives us a sense of richer, deeper reality than we can conceive or imagine, but a reality which constitutes a truly possible world; (2) and when it inspires us to shape our whole lives in such a way as to make that adaptation to God through which the best unattained but possible world shall be brought into existence.

How does this differ from morality? In morality we strive to do what we know is right. Religion includes that, but goes on beyond it. Morality is trying to live according to the best ideals of this world. But the religious living which issues from the experience of beauty tries to discover the ideals of that other possible world, which may be wholly different from the ideals of this world.

The aesthete, the artist, the moralist, and the prophet all find their inspiration and their insight in beauty. Beauty stirs them each to a strange unrest and 'sets them to climbing toward high places. The aesthete climbs toward that ecstacy which awaits the sensitive soul in the presence of beauty. The artist climbs toward the creation of those forms that come to haunt him after beauty has visited him. The moralist climbs toward those ideals which beauty has rendered radiantly alluring. But the religious prophet climbs a path more perilous, more mysterious, than the others. He goes forth in the attempt to wring from out the immensities of the universe that other world, wholly different from this, which visits him in ghostly presence when he gazes on the face of beauty.

2. How Beauty Leads to God

Beauty is not confined to works of art. Art provides us with only a small part of the beauty of the world. Nature, including unpremeditated human behavior, is full of beauty. The most profound and stirring beauty steals upon us unawares without the intervention of human handiwork. just as we pass around the point of a hill we perceive for the first time a tree standing in a meadow with the autumn haze beyond it and clinging dimly about it, and we are face to face with beauty. Or we pass through a strange dense wood and suddenly come upon a waterfall, the foaming water plunging from a granite height, a little rainbow at the foot, and there in the dark pool a great globule of scarlet reflected from a flower upon the bank. Or we lift our eyes to the cold blue mountains in the distance, their peaks streaked with gleaming white, and for a moment the ecstacy is ours.

The beautiful object, whether of art or nature, not only opens to us the vast realm of possibility. It also makes us aware of the depth of richness in the concrete actual world, and does this beyond any other kind of experience. The beautiful object is so fashioned that we can be simultaneously responsive to its many different parts and qualities. The ordinary object which is not beautiful, or the beauty of which is not appreciated, has only one or two features to which we react. We ignore it in all respects save those one or two qualities in it which happen to make it useful to us. The ugly object, on the other hand, has many different features to which we react; but our responses conflict, one tending to inhibit the other. Only the beautiful object is so formed that we can respond to its many parts and qualities all at once and yet do so without inner conflict or distress.

Thus beauty makes us aware of the rich fulness of the actual as well as the great realm of possible worlds. For this reason it brings us into intimate association with God. For God is that which (1) gives the rich fullness of reality to the actual world and (2) determines the scope and limitation of the possible transformations which this actual world can undergo. Whoever discerns the richness and depth of the actual world, and also the realm of possible worlds into which this actual world can be transformed, is very close to God. Since beauty gives us this experience it brings us into the presence of God. It can do this, however, only when we have that profound experience which we have described as the religious experience of beauty. The aesthete, the artist, and the moralist, unless they undergo this religious experience, do not have that awareness of unimaginable reality which constitutes the religious significance of beauty.

3. A Personal Experiment with Beauty

Seek out that form of beauty that stirs you most deeply. For most people, perhaps, great music will do this best. Before going into the presence of beauty prepare yourself by worship. Go where you can be completely alone. Relax and try to sense the all-encompassing presence of God. Remember that in adaptation to him you may attain to wholly unknown possibilities of good. Then examine yourself to discover what readjustment of your total personality is needed to enter into the fullest possible appreciation of that beauty which you are shortly to experience. Repeat quietly and trustingly many times this required readjustment. Then end the season of worship in the state of passive relaxed awareness of God. Having thus prepared yourself, go to that place where you can surrender yourself to the most profound experience of your chosen form of beauty. After it is past note whether you had in any way or to any degree the sense of unimaginable reality which has been described. Has it deepened your sense of the presence of God? Does it increase the zest and eagerness of your quest of a better world?

To complete the experiment you should make your life a great venturesome search for that other possible world, wholly different from this, which hovered so mysteriously near you under the magic spell of beauty. But such an experiment would far exceed the scope of a short course like this. Only after centuries have passed can the result of such an experiment be reported. Only when ages are done shall we fathom the mysterious possibility that beauty brings so dimly near.

Religious Experience through Communion, Meditation, and Worship
H. N. Wieman

How to Get the Benefit of Private Worship

The method of worship best adapted to one person is not always best for another. And the same person in different moods and circumstances will modify his method of worship to suit his need. Hence the suggestions we are about to make must not be taken as rigid rules. We can help one another by making these suggestions. But each must work out his own method. No study of rules and instructions ever enabled a man to swim the first time he jumped into deep water. He had to learn by practice. The same is true of worshipful meditation and communion.

Let us mention first three general conditions or preconditions which are helpful to worship.

The first of these we mentioned earlier. One must be living earnestly. One must not shirk the heavy responsibilities. One cannot swim in shallow water. One must venture out to depths where wading is difficult. If one is to worship successfully he must venture out into the depths. That does not mean that one must do something conspicuous before the world, or seek trouble. It merely means that one shall assume the tremendous responsibilities that await everyone who takes life seriously. It means, for example, if one is a parent, that he shall not treat his child merely as a plaything, but shall assume the enormous responsibility of that child's highest development. No matter how apparently circumscribed one's life may be, the great responsibilities are there for him to bear if he will shoulder them.

The first precondition of effectual worship is, then, that you take life seriously.

The second is sincerity. That means you will not take into your worship any beliefs concerning which you have any doubts. For example, suppose you doubt there is a God. Then do not try to believe there is a God. You can worship better without that belief if you are not absolutely sure of it. Discard any belief and every belief which you cannot hold with complete sincerity. Whenever any belief puts you under a sense of constraint, or gives you a feeling of unreality in your worship, pitch it out. Absolute sincerity, complete honesty with yourself, is indispensable to helpful worship.

A third precondition to worship is seclusion. Even a worshiping group should seclude itself. That is what a church building is for. But in private worship the individual should be alone. Of course one may achieve this required solitude of mind in physical association with others.

But it is best to go to some place where you can be completely alone, preferably at night just before retiring or soon after arising in the morning, or both. The ideal place would be a mountain top at night. That was where Jesus went for his private worship. But for most of us most of the time that is impossible. Some room will serve, especially if you can so shut yourself in that you need not fear others will hear you even when you speak aloud.

This need for solitude for worship arises out of the nature of private communion and meditation. To worship in this fashion means to cease the conduct of ordinary affairs in order to give your whole attention to that feature of your total environment which is supremely important for all human living. It means to turn from the lesser things in order to give the whole attention to God. If one does not believe in God one can call him by another name. I have a little son whom others call Robert, but whom I call Bobby. If you prefer to call God by another name, no harm is done. If the word God brings up doubts, then think of that behavior of the universe, whatever it may be, whether known or unknown, which is most helpful to human kind when we make right adjustment of our own activities to it. God is the supremely important object for all human living, whether or not you call him by that name. To worship is to give your whole attention to this supreme thing. To do this it is necessary to isolate yourself in order not to be distracted by lesser things.

What we have mentioned thus far-earnestness, sincerity, isolation -are the preconditions of worship. Let us now enter into the act of worship itself.

1. The first step in the act of worship is to relax and become aware of the all-encompassing presence. It is difficult to describe just what we mean, as difficult as to describe the acts by which you swim or walk or breathe. Another way of saying it is that we empty the mind and cease to think about anything in particular, yet are not in a state of stupor. It is a state of awareness. Awareness of what? Of that total encompassing presence which sustains you and shapes you and in adaptation to which all your life is lived in so far as it is lived well, and in so far as the greatest goods of life are attained by you. This presence is God; but if you have doubts about God, call it a certain behavior of the universe, or ozone, or electricity, or ether, or innumerable atoms, or any other misconception of God you may prefer. (We are trying to explain how one can worship and at the same time cast out every belief concerning which he has doubts.) Better let belief in God force itself into your mind against your will than try to hold it when it seems to be slipping away. Whatever you do, be honest.

This first step in the act of worship, then, is relaxed and empty-minded awareness of the all-encompassing presence.

2. The second step is to think of how this total process of atoms or electricity or ether (of course it is God) is working upon you and in you and through you to shape the cells of your body and the impulses of your mind into the likeness of Jesus Christ when you make right adjustment to it. If this thought about Jesus gives rise to any doubts, then think of that noblest kind of personality, that highest degree of health, that clearness of mind and greatness of purpose which may be yours when you make right adjustment to this total process of God. No matter how you may doubt your own possibilities, at least there is a maximum of nobility, a maximum of health and mentality and purpose of which you are capable, however small that maximum may be.

When we say one thinks about it, we do not mean one must know what that maximum is nor what shape it will assume. In fact one does not know except as he can see the maximum realization of these possibilities in some historic form as in Jesus. But you do not need to know what your highest possibilities are to think of them in the sense here indicated. You need merely to hold in mind that there are such possibilities for you, however, undefined and unexplored, and that they are to be attained through the working of this all-encompassing Reality.

This second step in the act of worship is, then, to call to mind the fact that you have a total maximum of possibility for good which God will accomplish in you and for you in so far as you make right adaptation to him.

3. The third step is to face the chief problem with which you are struggling. If you live earnestly you are always struggling with a problem which taxes your powers. You are in deep water where wading is difficult. So, in this third stage, after you have become aware of God (called by another name if you prefer) and of your own maximum but undefined possibilities through God, then face your major problem. Survey it as comprehensively and acutely as possible to find what most needs to be done.

4. The fourth step is to analyze yourself and find what mental attitude or habit of any kind needs to be corrected and readjusted in yourself in order that your activities may so fit into the behavior of things that the problem can be solved. What habits, not only of word and overt deed, but of inner attitude and secret impulse, must be changed in yourself in order to fit yourself into the working of the all-encompassing Presence. Your task is to adapt your activities and total personality in such a way that you can "mesh in" with that behavior of the universe through which the greatest good can be attained.

But one must face the fact that this survey and analysis of self in face of his major problem may lead to radical change, or even total abandonment, of that program which he has been following. One may find that he is seeking the wrong things or has mistaken his problem. To make such a discovery is one of the great goods achieved through the worship we are describing. As a result of such worship one may turn right about and go in another direction. However, this is by no means the necessary result. The more common result, perhaps, is to find a way to carry through the task one has undertaken.

5. When you have discovered what readjustment is needed in yourself in order to make right connection with the behavior which is God, you must formulate this personal readjustment in positive terms. You must never stop with a merely negative attitude. The overcoming of a fault is always a positive constructive operation. It always consists of making some right adjustment in order to correct the wrong adjustment. This right adjustment must be formulated in mind as clearly, concisely, and accurately as possible. Put it into words. For example: "I am sensitive and sympathetic to the thought and feeling of others." Or: "I remember every detail when it is needed." Or: "I am calm and winsome and adaptable." Or whatever your need may be.

Some one may say: But the chief problem that engages me in worship has nothing to do with myself. I am praying for some one in Africa or otherwise far removed from anything that I can say or do or feel. No adjustment in myself can be of any avail whatsoever. My answer is: Anything which deeply interests you does have something to do with yourself. It has everything to do with yourself. If you pray about it, then it is through wh'at you do, i.e., through your prayer, that any good is accomplished. Either your prayer is effective or it is not. If it is effective then it is because you pra I yed. That means it is effective because of the personal adjustment which you make to the potent working of your total environment. Let no one think genuine prayer is merely a mouthing of words with no adjustment of the total personality to the total environmental working of God.

So we say the fifth step in worship is positive statement to yourself of the required adjustment of your personality in light of the major problem which concerns you, so that God can work his good.

Some will wish to take a sixth step, that of verbal repetition, preferably spoken aloud to yourself, of this required adjustment of your
personality. "I am quick to see and feel the need of another." "I am simple and honest in all my dealings." "I think profoundly, comprehensively, and accurately." I am this or that, or I feel some way or another toward certain things or persons. What it is you repeat and the numb--r of times you repeat it will, of course, depend on what you have found to be the required adjustment of your total thinking, feeling, willing, doing personality.

The words repeated are not necessarily prayers to God, although one may so apply them to God if he chooses. The communion with God has already been accomplished in the earlier stages of the worship as previously described. What one is now doing by this repetition is to reap the benefits of that worship and enter into a realization of the possibilities which it has opened up. Through this repetition of words you are simply establishing as an enduring habitual attitude of the total personality that adjustment to God which you have attained through worship. You are sealing, conserving, "nailing down" the benefits of that worship.

This repetition of words by which a personal attitude is established is the last stage in the complete act of worship. It should not be done with any sense of strain or anxiety, but in the spirit which the preceding worship has engendered.

We suggest the foregoing program as an experiment in personal religion. If you will try it every night just before retiring for three or four weeks we believe you will note some very marked results.

Religious Experience through the Outer World of Nature
H. N. Wieman

The Method of Religious Experience

In this study we want to do two things. We want to learn how to prepare for religious experience and profit by it, and we want to pool our experiences so that we can learn from one another. The art of how to prepare for religious experience and profit by it is one of the great practical arts of human living. Like every other art it must be developed. The only way to develop any art is for people to tell one another what they have learned through their experiences and efforts. Cannot we all, who have a share in this course, co operate in the enterprise of improving the art of entering into and profiting by the religious experience? Wonderful possibilities for increasing joy and mastery in living are attainable through proper use of religious experience. Indeed, its proper use is the master art in life, for through it all the other arts of living can be improved.

We crudely talk about air and water and food and social group as the factors upon which we must depend for our welfare and improvement. But these are mere fragments in that vast, mysterious, mighty Working which operates in us and upon us and around us throughout all nature. In religious experience there is some conscious awareness of this mighty and blessed Working. When we come into the presence of some great manifestation of nature we may suddenly become aware of this all-sustaining Working. We may feel ourselves borne up by it, or see it gazing up at us in the face of a flower, or towering over us in the mountains, or feel it encompassing us with the greenery of the wood.

But this sense of the mighty Working does not always come to us in the presence of nature. There may be some to whom it never comes. Others it may visit very rarely.

Here we are face to face with a subtle and loathsome temptation. It is the temptation to make ourselves think that we have this exalted experience when we do not have it. Our minds run something like this: It is the proper thing to have this experience in the presence of nature. Poets and prophets and many great souls have had it. I guess I can too. Then we go through all the motions of having the experience and really make ourselves think that we have it.

Can, then, one cultivate this experience? No, not directly. But one can prepare himself for it. One may put himself in the way of having it. It is like love. One cannot make himself love his brother. But the great contagion is likely to infect him if he is receptive to it and puts himself in situations where it is likely to befall him. So religious experience must come of itself, often quite unexpectedly; but one can conduct his life in such a way that it is likely to befall him. That is part of what we mean by the art of preparing for religious experience.
But when the experience comes it may have no value save to provide the luxury of a pleasant or stirring emotion. To have conscious awareness of this all-sustaining Working does not bring one any closer to it, for one is always as close to it as he can get. There are some natures who can enter frequently and deeply into genuine and vivid awareness of God and yet live weak, futile, slovenly lives. To have conscious experience of God does not necessarily help a man at all. To conduct ourselves in such a way that religious experience not only may befall us but that it may have beneficial results for us is the whole of what we mean by the art of preparing for religious experience and profiting by it.

Great living depends on making proper adaptation to that Working upon which all life is dependent. If conscious experience of that Working helps one to make better adaptation to it, his life will be better. But merely to have a vivid and exalted consciousness of that Working will not help him if the experience does not enable him to make better adaptation. On the other hand, a man who does adapt himself to the working of God, even though he may have no conscious experience of God, will live a great life. Through the teaching of others, and through results of careful experimentation, a man can learn how to adapt to many things of which he has never had any conscious experience. This applies to the working of God as well as to other matters. But religious experience may be of great help to a man in making better adaptation to that Working upon which human life is dependent for its greatest goods. In fact, this is the only enduring and practical value religious experience can have. If it does not do this its value is purely sentimental. It is quite easy to be unduly sentimental and rapturous about religious experience for its own sake.

There are, then, two very urgent and very practical questions pertaining to religious experience: (i) how to put one's self in the way of having the experience; (2) how to use the experience in such a way as to attain better adaptation to the working of God as he operates throughout space and time. Let us reduce these two questions to one: how to prepare for religious experience in such a way that it will bring us into better adjustment to God.

We answer this question under four points.

1. One must face the chief difficulties and perplexities of his life and wrestle with them. He must take life seriously. He must draw on his every resource of physical endurance and mental agility and nervous energy and dogged determination to master circumstance and make human life more satisfactory for himself and others. This strain and burden-bearing, this taking of life seriously, is necessary preparation for profitable religious experience. The frivolous and superficial generally do not have great religious experiences. Some of them, however, do; but when they do, their experience is only the luxury of a sweet and exalted emotion such as we described above.

2. But earnest wrestling with the serious problems of life is only preparation for profitable religious experience. Such wrestling does not ordinarily in itself yield the experience. Rather the experience is likely to come when one stops the fight for a breathing spell and a short period of relaxation. One goes off, let us say, where he can be alone with nature, in a scene quite different from that in which he has been trying to solve his difficult problems.

This, then, is the second requirement for entering into a profitable religious experience. One must leave the struggle of life, occasionally, for a little spiritual relaxation. In this month's study we suggest turning to nature. Further suggestions for the use of this time of relaxation will be made in later lessons. In this period of relaxation, if rightly conducted, the religious experience is most likely to come.

3. The experience that comes in the interval of relaxation should provide some insight toward the solution of the problems which have been engaging one's attention in the struggle of living. Here we have the chief function of religious experience. It is an experience through which discoveries are made concerning how to live more effectively and more abundantly; how to achieve mastery over difficulties and mount to higher levels; in a word, how to live in better adaptation to the working of God. Religious experience should be the moment of profound insight and new adjustment to the total environment. Great conversions occur in such experiences. All the famous conversions, from Paul's down, have occurred through such experiences. A conversion is simply the discovery and adoption of some new way of living in better adaptation to the Working which is God. But conversion is not the only form of moral and spiritual discovery and initiation that may occur through religious experience. After "conversion" one may make further discoveries. Often the new insight is of such a nature that you cannot word it. You simply have found out how to live with peace and power you never had before.

4. The fourth requirement is that this new way of living which has come to one in the religious experience must be carefully, observantly, and patiently tested by living it. A new way of living is not necessarily successful at the very start. Generally it is not. And often its success is not apparent to any save those of deepest insight. But one must be teachable in the conduct of his new way of life. He must modify and adapt and reshape it to fit the conditions with which he has to deal. No one is worse than the hair-brained fanatic who will not learn from the results of trial and error, but insists that his way is unalterably right because he got it from God.

It is even possible that one's new way of life, discovered through religious experience, may be a mistake. The human mind is always fallible, and it does not cease to be human even when it undergoes religious experience. He who must have an iron-clad guaranty that he will make no mistakes can have no share in great living whether through religious experience or otherwise. But the great insights, the great transformation of personality and human history, have been initiated in such experiences.

The whole value of religious experience, we repeat, aside from the luxury of emotion, is that through it we discover how better to adapt our human lives to the Working upon which we are dependent for the greatest good. It should enable us to make better adjustment to God.

Two final points must be clear. The experience need not be highly emotional. The important thing is the insight that is attained concerning how better to live with God. There may or may not be a thrill and sense of exaltation. Secondly, the insight may not be something that will revolutionize human history. Generally it is not. It may be a discovery of how better to deal with your child; or how ro win the good will of your neighbor; or how to make better use of your time; or how to get over some nagging perplexity which is important to you personally, although it may never be known to any other.

And we must remember that anything which truly and in the long run benefits human life is, ultimately, a better adaptation to the vast and mighty Working which lifts us to the highest when we find how to yield ourselves to its lifting power.

Keeping in mind, therefore, the nature of religious experience, the possibility of placing one's self in the way of it and the resultant effect upon the art of practical living, can we, after our observations of the experience of historical characters, turn our eyes upon our own immediate environment, and learn to recognize the results of religious experience in others, and to recall some data regarding our own religious experience.

It will be a good plan to keep a notebook with this course, jotting down observations, memories and new experiences which seem to you to have some bearing upon the question, this month especially observing the extent to which contact with the world of external nature may foster and suggest a religious experience, always distinguishing those experiences which will stand the test of the points raised in this portion of our study. Students of the course are invited in addition to answering the review questions to report sach observations and experiences. On the following page will be found an outline of work for those who desire to have criticism by correspondence.

This idea-ideal of doing good to others—the impulse to deny the ego something for the benefit of one’s neighbor—is very circumscribed at first. Primitive man regards as neighbor only those very close to him, those who treat him neighborly; as religious civilization advances, one’s neighbor expands in concept to embrace the clan, the tribe, the nation. And then Jesus enlarged the neighbor scope to embrace the whole of humanity, even that we should love our enemies. And there is something inside of every normal human being that tells him this teaching is moral—right. Even those who practice this ideal least, admit that it is right in theory.103:5:2

POSITIVE WAY MISSION CHURCH MONTHLY REPORT FOR MARCH 2024

The month of March was quite a busy month for us. While the Urantia Book training continued
normally, we had other programs that we handled this month. First was the Discipleship Training
Program that took place on the 2nd and 3rd of March where we made an effort to introduce the
Urantia Book. Then we had the Pastors Fellowship for two Saturdays in the month, that is the
second and the third Saturdays where we gathered fellow Pastors and introduced them to the
Urantia Book. We had an encouraging response and we gifted the Urantia Book to the Pastors
that honored our invitation.

Then we had our five days Easter Program from Wednesday 27th to Sunday 31st of March
2024. On Wednesday we discussed the overview of the Urantia Book, on Thursday we had a
filmshow on The Life of Jesus and at the end we celebrated the Remembrance Supper. On
Friday we spoke about The Father”s Bestowal Program. On Saturday we spoke about The
Benefits of The Bestowal and the release of The Mighty Spirit of Truth. On Sunday we
celebrated The Resurrection and Sovereignty of Our Lord Jesus. The program was well
attended.

Regarding the funding received for this month, on 11/03/24 we received 114,610.00 Naira which
went a long way in assisting us in attending to the preliminary preparatory expenses for the five
days program and hosting the Pastors Fellowship. On 27/03/24 we received our monthly
funding of 1,427, 720.00 Naira. This was significantly lower than the usual funding received and
it affected a lot of our operations especially as regards the five days Easter Program. We had
eighteen trainees and four trainers and we paid out a total of One Million Naira on salaries,
allowances and medicals. The balance was used to run the Easter Program and for
maintenance.

We received higher funding last month and we were able to pay out more money to our trainees
and trainers to cushion the effect of the inflation in our economy. This month it was tough on all
sides.

We thank God for everything.
In loving Service
Iheanacho and Alicejane Uwaoma

Some people find it very hard to believe that salvation and spiritual growth can occur outside their religion. 

Enoch and Elijah were not Christians, Muslims, Hindus, etc. Elijah may have practiced Judaism but definitely not Enoch. 

These two men grew in faith, in love, in intelligence and spirituality to such an extent that they qualified to ascend to heaven without even tasting death! 

It's not about evolutionary, man-made religion. It's about walking in the spirit, manifesting the fruits of the spirit. It's about personal, conversational relationship with God. 

"My Father is no respecter of races or generations in that the word of truth is vouchsafed one age and withheld from another. Commit not the folly of calling that divine which is wholly human, and fail not to discern the words of truth which come not through the traditional oracles of supposed inspiration."

1679 Prophecy to the Sons of God By Jane Leade

Therefore let it be known with truth and assurance that the sons of God belong in all things to a higher realm. Unto this high realm many are now proceeding, and from it the world will be filled with the knowledge and government of the Lord.

"Now that you are ambassadors of my Father's kingdom, you have thereby become a class of men separate and distinct from all other men on earth. You are not now as men among men but as the enlightened citizens of another and heavenly country among the ignorant creatures of this dark world. It is not enough that you live as you were before this hour, but henceforth must you live as those who have tasted the glories of a better life and have been sent back to earth as ambassadors of the Sovereign of that new and better world. Of the teacher more is expected than of the pupil; of the master more is exacted than of the servant. Of the citizens of the heavenly kingdom more is required than of the citizens of the earthly rule. Some of the things which I am about to say to you may seem hard, but you have elected to represent me in the world even as I now represent the Father; and as my agents on earth you will be obligated to abide by those teachings and practices which are reflective of my ideals of mortal living on the worlds of space, and which I exemplify in my earth life of revealing the Father who is in heaven. From the teachings of the Urantia Revelations (1955)

The following remarkable prophecy, given in the year 1679, forcefully confirms the truths written above. We quote it in its entirety for your benefit and blessing. Please read and re-read it for its truths are profound:

01 "There shall be a total and full redemption by Christ. This is a hidden mystery not to be understood without the revelation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is at hand to reveal the same unto all holy seekers and loving enquirers. The completion of such a redemption is withheld and abstracted by the seals of Revelation. Wherefore as the Spirit of God shall open seal after seal, (Paper after Paper) so shall this redemption come to be revealed, both particularly and universally. In the gradual opening of the mystery of redemption in Christ doth consist the unsearchable wisdom of God which may continually reveal new and fresh things to the worthy seeker. In order to which the Ark of the Testimony in Heaven shall be opened before the end of this age, and the living testimony herein contained shall be unsealed."

02 "The presence of the Divine Ark (Christ) will constitute the life of this Virgin Church, and wherever this body is, there must the Ark of necessity be. The unsealing of the living testimony within the Ark of God must begin the promulgation of the everlasting gospel of the Kingdom. The proclamation of the testimony will be as the sounding of a trumpet of alarm to the nations of professed Christendom. Authority shall be given by Christ to the putting an end to all controversies concerning the true church that is born of the New Jerusalem mother. This decision will be the actual sealing of the body of Christ with the name (or authority) of God, giving them a commission to act by the same. This new name (or authority) will distinguish them from the seven thousand names of Babylon.

03 "The election and preparation of this Virgin Church is to be after a secret and hidden manner. As David in his ministry was chosen and anointed by the prophet of the Lord, yet was not admitted to the outward profession of the kingdom for a considerable time afterward, of the stem of David a Virgin Church, which hath known nothing of a man or human constitution, is to be born, and it will require some time for it to get out of the minority and arrive at full and mature age."

04 "The birth of this Virgin Church was typified by St. John's vision where the great wonder appeared in heaven, bringing forth her first born, that was caught up to the throne of God (or identified with the authority of God). For as a woman brought forth Christ after the flesh, so shall a Sonship Family bring forth the first born after the Spirit, who shall be endowed with the seven spirits of God. This spiritual family so brought forth and sealed with the mark of divine authority will have no bonds or impositions; but the holy unction among these new born spirits will be " I AM all in all a new revelation of the Supreme Being.

05 "There is not at this day (1679) visible upon the earth such a church; all profession being found light when weighed in the balances. Therefore they are rejected by the Supreme Judge, which rejection will be for this cause, that out of them may come a new and glorious church. (Comprising a single human family) Then shall the glory of God and the Lamb so rest upon this typical tabernacle, so that it shall be called the Tabernacle of Wisdom, and though it is not now known in visibility, yet it shall be seen as coming out of the wilderness within a short time. Then will it go on to multiply and propogate itself universally, not only to the number of the first born (144,000) but also to the remnant of the seed, against whom the dragon will make war continually."

06 "Wherefore the spirit of David shall revive in this church and most especially in some elect members of it as the blossoming root. These will have might given them to overcome the dragon and his angels even as David overcame Goliath and the Philistine army. This will be the standing up of the great Prince Michael, and it will be as the appearing of Moses against Pharaoh in order that the chosen seed may be brought out of hard servitude." Eph. 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world…(the Power Elite)

157:4.5 Jesus, still standing, then said to the twelve: "You are my chosen ambassadors, but I know that, in the circumstances, you could not entertain this belief as a result of mere human knowledge. This is a revelation of the spirit of my Father to your inmost souls. And when, therefore, you make this confession by the insight of the spirit of my Father which dwells within you, I am led to declare that upon this foundation will I build the brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven. Upon this rock of spiritual reality will I build the living temple of spiritual fellowship in the eternal realities of my Father's kingdom. All the forces of evil and the hosts of sin shall not prevail against this human fraternity of the divine spirit. And while my Father's spirit shall ever be the divine guide and mentor of all who enter the bonds of this spirit fellowship, to you and your successors I now deliver the keys of the outward kingdom -- the authority over things temporal -- the social and economic features of this association of men and women as fellows of the kingdom." And again he charged them, for the time being, that they should tell no man that he was the Son of God. From the teachings of the Urantia Revelations(1955)

Eph. 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the full armour of God, that ye may withstand the evil day.
Eph. 6:14 Girt your loins about with truth, and have on the breast plate of righteousness…
Eph. 6:15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Eph. 6:16 and above all, take the Shield of Faith…
Eph. 6:17 the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.

07 "Egypt doth figure this servile creation under which Abraham's seed groans, but a prophet, and the most prophetical generation, will the Most High raise up who shall deliver His people by the force of spiritual arms; for which there must be raised up certain head powers to bear the first office, who are to be persons in favor with God whose dread and fear shall fall on all nations visible and invisible, because of the mighty acting power of the Holy Spirit which shall rest upon them. For Christ will appear in some chosen vessels to bring into the Promised Land the New Creation state."

08 "Thus Moses, Joshua, and Aaron may be considered types of some upon whom the same Spirit will come, yet in greater proportion. Whereby they shall make way for the ransomed of the Lord to return to Mt. Zion; but none shall stand under God but those who have become "tried" stones after the pattern and similitude of Christ. This will be fiery trial through which a very few will be able to pass or bear up in it. Whereby the waiters for this visible breaking forth are strictly charged to hold fast, and wait together in the unity of Pure Love. This trial will be of absolute necessity to all for the clearing away of all remaining infirmities of the natural mind, and the burning of all wood, hay, and stubble. For nothing must remain in the fire, for as a refiner shall He purify the sons of the Kingdom."

09 "There will be some who will be fully redeemed, being clothed upon with a priestly garment after the Melchizedek order. This will qualify them for governing Authority. Therefore it is required on their part to suffer the Spirit of burning and fanning of the fiery breath searching every part within them until they arrive at a Fixed Body from whence the wonders are to flow out."

10 "Upon this body will be the fixation of the Urim and Thummim that are the portion of the Melchizedek priesthood whose descent is not counted in the genealogy of that creation which is under the fall, but in another genealogy which is a New Creation. Hence these priests will have a deep inward search and divine sight into secret things of Deity; will be able to prophesy in a clear ground; not darkly and enigmatically, for they will know what is couched in the first originality of all beings, in the eternal anti-type of nature, and will be able to bring them forth according to the divine counsel and ordination.

11 "The Lord sweareth in truth and righteousness that from Abraham's line, according to the Spirit, there shall arise a holy seed, produced and manifested in the last age. The mighty spirit of Cyrus is appointed to lay the foundation of this Third Temple and support it in building."

12 "There are characteristics and marks whereby the pure Virgin Church shall be known and distinguished from all others that are low, false, and counterfeit. There must be a manifestation of the Spirit whereby to edify and raise up this church, bringing heaven down upon the earth and representing here the New Jerusalem state, in order to which spirits are thus begotten and born of God, ascended to New Jerusalem above where their Head in majesty doth reign."

13 "None but those who have so ascended and received His glory can condescend and communicate the same, being thereby His representatives upon the earth and subordinate priests under Him now. He that has ascended and glorified has made Himself, as it were, our Debtor. Consequently, He will not be wanting in qualifying and furnishing certain high and principal instruments who shall be most humble and as little regarded as David was, whom He will dignify with honour and priestly sovereignty for drawing to them the scattered flocks, and gathering them into one fold out of all nations."

14 "Therefore, there should be a holy emulation and ambition stirred up among the bands of believers that they may be of the first-fruits unto Him that is risen from the dead, and so be made principal agents for Him and with Him, that they may be, if possible, of the number of the First-born of the New Jerusalem mother. All true waiters of His Kingdom in Spirit, under whatsoever profession they may be, ought to be numbered among the virgin spirits to whom this message appertains. Be watchful and quicken your pace."

155:6.2 You have come out from among those of your fellows who choose to remain satisfied with a religion of mind, who crave security and prefer conformity. You have elected to exchange your feelings of authoritative certainty for the assurances of the spirit of adventurous and progressive faith. You have dared to protest against the grueling bondage of institutional religion and to reject the authority of the traditions of record which are now regarded as the word of God. Our Father did indeed speak through Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea, but he did not cease to minister words of truth to the world when these prophets of old made an end of their utterances. My Father is no respecter of races or generations in that the word of truth is vouchsafed one age and withheld from another. Commit not the folly of calling that divine which is wholly human, and fail not to discern the words of truth which come not through the traditional oracles of supposed inspiration. From the teachings of the Urantia Revelations (1955)

155:6.2 You have come out from among those of your fellows who choose to remain satisfied with a religion of mind, who crave security and prefer conformity. You have elected to exchange your feelings of authoritative certainty for the assurances of the spirit of adventurous and progressive faith. You have dared to protest against the grueling bondage of institutional religion and to reject the authority of the traditions of record which are now regarded as the word of God. Our Father did indeed speak through Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea, but he did not cease to minister words of truth to the world when these prophets of old made an end of their utterances. My Father is no respecter of races or generations in that the word of truth is vouchsafed one age and withheld from another. Commit not the folly of calling that divine which is wholly human, and fail not to discern the words of truth which come not through the traditional oracles of supposed inspiration. From the teachings of the Urantia Revelations (1955)

A New School of the Prophets

148:1.1 (1657.6) Peter, James, and Andrew were the committee designated by Jesus to pass upon applicants for admission to the school of evangelists. All the races and nationalities of the Roman world and the East, as far as India, were represented among the students in this new school of the prophets. This school was conducted on the plan of learning and doing. What the students learned during the forenoon they taught to the assembly by the seaside during the afternoon. After supper they informally discussed both the learning of the forenoon and the teaching of the afternoon.

148:1.2 (1658.1) Each of the apostolic teachers taught his own view of the gospel of the kingdom. They made no effort to teach just alike; there was no standardized or dogmatic formulation of theologic doctrines. Though they all taught the same truth, each apostle presented his own personal interpretation of the Master’s teaching. And Jesus upheld this presentation of the diversity of personal experience in the things of the kingdom, unfailingly harmonizing and co-ordinating these many and divergent views of the gospel at his weekly question hours. Notwithstanding this great degree of personal liberty in matters of teaching, Simon Peter tended to dominate the theology of the school of evangelists. Next to Peter, James Zebedee exerted the greatest personal influence.

148:1.3 (1658.2) The one hundred and more evangelists trained during this five months by the seaside represented the material from which (excepting Abner and John’s apostles) the later seventy gospel teachers and preachers were drawn. The school of evangelists did not have everything in common to the same degree as did the twelve.

148:1.4 (1658.3) These evangelists, though they taught and preached the gospel, did not baptize believers until after they were later ordained and commissioned by Jesus as the seventy messengers of the kingdom. Only seven of the large number healed at the sundown scene at this place were to be found among these evangelistic students. The nobleman’s son of Capernaum was one of those trained for gospel service in Peter’s school.

Let's join hands in the establishment of the school of future evangelist and teachers of the urantia book teachings!