The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1971

The Downright Devotee

Sun Myung Moon
July 4, 1971
Early morning
Headquarters Church, Seoul, Korea
1971 translation

Today is the 4th of July, the first Sabbath of this month and the six months ahead. Sixteen years ago we July 4th brought a heavy burden of suffering and disaster to the Unification Church. [1] The fact that the church stood since that day will be studied closely by all those willing to follow the Divine Principles. No one is without his history process that guides his purpose and direction. If your historical process is right and true, your way of life will also be right and true. Neither future nor past can fulfill such a historical process. In reality only our actions and feelings can make it.

Unless words and action are one, they result in evil. If we harmonize on all sides we are balanced. If we don't harmonize, we lose our spiritual balance and it is almost impossible for us to right ourselves. The same is true of our faith -- if we lean to one side we lose harmony and harmony cannot easily be recovered, even with hundreds of thousands of times the effort. So to keep from turning aside from our path, you must be right and true in your words and actions -- behavior and feelings to draw the boundary between gain and loss in your religious life. Even one hundredth of second will make or break your fate.

Since different people have different directions and sincerity, there may be different direction toward the same purpose. Just because you have a unique character, doesn't mean that you deserve to be concerned. Frankly, we need to shorten our path and find the direction towards the final goal.

We try to be open-hearted in religious life praying, "If my actions result in harm, please let me be judged!" When you make ten mistakes and pray to God for forgiveness because of your making hundreds of inexcusable mistakes, you will be favored -- that is to say, there is no necessity of excuse, because your heart is in the right place. Particularly, those who have had a profound spiritual experience will realize that making a single slip of the tongue may cause A long course of indemnity. Asked why they stopped participating in the Unification Church's Rural Area Education, women make excuses.

As you see, no one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven by themselves; we can only enter through our family, tribe, race, nation and world. So any individual or racial viewpoint should be absorbed by a higher view. Korea should be the Universal Heavenly Kingdom standing aloof from racial feelings. Since the world is one from the providential viewpoint, you should be one with God's Will. This is the final and unique way of our church. Therefore we must be humble and mild. Whoever departed making excuses cannot recover his original position no matter how hard he tries. He has determined to be nervous and upset in the world to come, because there is strict gap between good and evil. You should bear this in mind.

The nearer you come to the True Believer willing to live truly, the more you don't become like him. So to save you from such a miserable situation, you have to ask Master's advice. In a praying heart you have to confessing and talk to him. What does prayer mean? It is the way to lead us out of our confused spiritual direction to the correct spiritual direction. Prayer allows us to change life, even though it may be an eternally struggling life. How much have you been open-hearted to your family, tribe, society, race, nation, world and God? You should be straighter and more honest with the higher ones. A man of conscience is discreet in talking pride in his deed.

The sages and the wise are those who have tried to escape conscience-stricken conduct in accordance with the Way of Heaven. They have remained in the historical process because their ways of living and thinking have been universal. If two out of three persons are dishonest, judgment is unavoidable and who's the judge? Of course, it is the third one; the one who was honest. No matter how conscientiously you live, it is far from the absolute heavenly standard.

There must appear a third being, God, embodying morality, law or custom, in our lives between spirit and body. God is the master of such standards, so if we act in opposition to His providence, we will be judged. Our life in compliance with Him is so profound that even a bit of mistake can destroy a long period of sincere devotion. Anyone who has been imprisoned know that boiled rice precedes one's loyalty to parents, brothers, or husband and wife, To starving people only cooked rice can be ultimate goal, ensuring survival for another day. A starving person is apt to have his food face him and accuse him. Likewise to indemnify wicked mistakes, nobody can escape our miserable way unless he reaches the deepest state of serious mind.


Note:

1. On July 4, 1955, Sun Myung Moon was taken to Seoul Central Police Station and was later incarcerated in Seodaemun Prison. This was the incident that put a brake on the Unification Church’s rapid membership growth among elite university students from Ehwa University and Yonsei University. Christian churches and the government worked together to imprison True Father for three months at Seodaemun Prison. Won Pil Kim, Hyo Won Eu, and other disciples were also incarcerated with True Father. On October 4, 1955 the trial ended and Father was declared innocent and freed. 

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