Religious Living

[Guest guest]

I send this to share with you something

precious to me.

I know many who live in loving service to others, and who study

law and government ideals for that purpose. I appreciate all for

their devotion to supreme values. I encourage all to let that

devotion make them immune to disappointment

and impervious to defeat.

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 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 , 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.

Excerpted from Religion in

Human Experience

--

Bob Hurt

2460 Persian Drive #70

Clearwater, FL 33763-1925

(727) 669-5511

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