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Meanings and values (continued)
You cannot truly love your fellows simply as an act of will. Love is only born of a thorough going understanding of their real motives and sentiments.
It is not so important that you love all mankind today as it is that each day you learn to love one more human being.
Love is infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more catching than hate.
If each mortal could only become a focus of infection, the benign virus that is love would soon pervade all humanity--and that would be the realization that we all are children in the one family of God.
Sincerity
The sincere religionist is conscious of universe citizenship and self-worth--a self that has surrendered to an all-encompassing motivation that 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 that is associated with moral determination and the spiritual aspiration to attain the highest universe goals. And this intense striving for the attainment of super-mortal ideals is always characterized by increasing patience, forbearance, fortitude, and tolerance.
True religion is living love, a life of service. But the religionist's detachment from much that is purely temporal and trivial never leads to social isolation. Genuine religion takes nothing away from human existence, but it does add new meanings to all of life.
One of the most amazing hallmarks of religious living is that dynamic and sublime peace that passes all understanding, that cosmic poise that betokens the absence of all doubt and turmoil.
How far can we go?
Although the average mortal cannot hope to attain the perfection of character reached by Jesus during his sojourn in the flesh, nevertheless it is possible for every mortal believer to develop a strong and unified personality along the perfected lines of Jesus' personality.
The unfailing kindness and stalwart strength of character of Jesus amazed his followers. He was truly sincere, had nothing of the hypocrite in him. He was free from shamming--acting. He lived the truth, even as he taught it. He was the truth. He was reasonable, approachable, practical, free from all freakish, erratic, and eccentric tendencies. And he was unafraid.
Of Jesus it was truly said, "He trusted God." As a man amongst men, he most sublimely trusted the Father in heaven. He trusted his Father as a little child trusts an earthly parent. His faith was perfect but never presumptuous. He never faltered in his faith. He was immune to disappointment, impervious to persecution, and untouched by apparent failure. He loved people. And he went about doing good.
Jesus was unusually cheerful--though never blind and unreasonable. He was always generous, and never grew weary of stating that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
He controlled his enthusiasm; it never controlled him. He was unreservedly dedicated to "being about his Father's business."
Jesus was a soul of gladness. 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. He was never in a hurry; his composure was sublime.
Jesus was great because he was good--yet he fraternized with little children. He was gentle and unassuming in his personal life--yet he was the perfected man of a universe. And his associates called him "Master" unbidden.
Jesus was a perfectly unified human personality. Today he continues to unify mortal existence. He enters the human mind to elevate, transform, and transfigure. It is literally true: "If any man has the spirit of Jesus Christ within him, he is a new creature; old things are passing away; behold all things are becoming new." (2 Cor. 5:17)
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