People living on earth seek what is better. If we ask why people seek what is good, it is because it holds a higher value and, at the same time, greater eternity.
What Is Most Necessary in the Providence of Restoration
A person wishes to become more good. That is because he can be equipped with content that can remain together with the past and present and future more than any form his individual self holds. To put it another way, it means that because a good person stands upon a firm foundation that no one can violate, human beings pursue becoming good people.
We know that evil does not last long. Evil resists only for a moment. Furthermore, it does not hold content by which it can transcend the sphere of an age and found history. History is what continues for eternity, and the motive that can make it continue is moment by moment. But because eternal history is not achieved through an evil process, we human beings do not like evil people or evil things.
We must know that just as we human beings desire what is good, God too desires what is good. That is because, just as some firm ground or certain foundation that does not change is necessary for us human beings in living, this is likewise necessary before the Will of the Providence of Restoration.
Then what is it that is most necessary first before the Will of the Providence of Restoration?
One must know that, more than any outer material, a person standing upon firm ground is necessary. Therefore, we human beings must become important people first, rather than pursuing material.
Then what kind of person is that person?
He is a person who can stand upon an unchanging firm foundation in the course of the history of restoration. Through such a person, history began and has moved until now.
However much all the outer conditions be equipped, if there is no such person, those conditions cannot become a good foundation, so they cannot be used for a good purpose, and cannot achieve a good purpose, and cannot dwell in a good place. Inferring from such a fact, one must know that in conducting the Providence of Restoration, the person is the problem.
Just as a person becomes the center even in setting one household right and holding a firm ground, it is likewise the same in the Providence of Restoration. One nation, too, is likewise formed of people and is sustained by people.
If the people hold a view of the nation equipped with a foundation in accord with the purpose of the whole rather than the purpose of the individual, that nation can develop infinitely. Therefore, we must know that for us who pursue goodness, a person standing upon an unchanging firm foundation is more precious than anything.
The Value of a Person Standing upon a Solid Foundation
When we set out some person and say “that person,” we come to look at that person’s word and deed and thought. It means we come to look at whether that person’s words, that person’s actions, that person’s attitude of mind, and the work that person does stand upon a certain foundation. Therefore, a person must have all these standing upon a completely unshakable foundation. A person for whom these things change according to the time and change according to the environment cannot become a person who can exert any influence at all upon the nation or people, or upon the family or upon individuals. Here we come to feel how important are the actions and attitude of mind and the words spoken by a person standing upon a solid foundation.
Then when we say some person is a person of character, because the words and actions that appear in the figure of a person of character are done upon a solid foundation, no one at all can move them.
You must know the fact that when one speaks completely unshakable words that cannot be moved even by a friend, or by a person holding some authority, or by a person of however close a relationship, from there a new bond unfolds, and from there all matters begin.
It is the same with action. When one acts from an unchanging, certain position, even though it be a temporary action, it becomes an action that can move history and can stand in place of the age.
When the number of such individuals is added and appears as one action, it becomes a movement that can transform a nation, and also becomes an origin that can found a new nation.
If there be a clan if a clan, a people if a people, formed of individuals standing upon such a solid foundation, that clan or people cannot but become a clan or people that does not begin within some limited sphere of time and stop within that sphere, but begins from a position transcending the sphere of time and can stretch out toward eternity.
When we set out such a fact, the question of how much we have indeed pursued such a figure of the individual is a problem we must think about at the present point.
The Person God Requires
We say that though God has conducted the Providence of Restoration for six thousand years, He has still not found one man and one woman. Until now in this world there have been many men and many women and many husbands and wives.
Furthermore, they have been equipped with the forms of a people and a nation and a world. But it means there was not one person who could receive and respond to God’s eternal and unchanging Word and who could inherit God’s eternal great enterprise and make it continue. We know that this is God’s sorrow.
If some family if a family, as a family of renown, held content that could move history and the tradition of a people, but in that family there were no child who could inherit such things, how great would the sorrow be?
If there be a child in that family, all the content equipped in that family will shine all the more. And every bond related to that family too will come to shine. But if no child can inherit the deep content of that family, that family will come to decline from there.
God’s Will too is like such environmental content of ours. If there be a true person who can inherit the perpetual Will centering on God, it is not lacking for departing toward the glory of the future; but when there is no such human being, however solid a position God be in, He cannot but be powerless before us human beings and before history and also cannot bequeath all of God’s great enterprise. Therefore, one cannot help but think how precious a human being is standing upon one solid ground. That is why God has toiled until now to find such an individual.
Then have I today taken such a solid position before that Will God seeks? This is a grave problem we cannot help but think about again.
For God there must be a completely unshakable individual who can be together with the Will. When that cannot be, however great the Will and however much time has come in which that Will can be accomplished, that Will and that time become of no use. In that sense we come to think about whether the individuals of us unification believers, who today are said to shoulder a world-historical mission, have indeed become ones who, together with the Will, do not change however anyone seeks to change us and are not altered however anyone seeks to alter us and have become complete ones who need no compounded force added to supplement some content further.
If there be such a person here, he cannot help but become God’s joy and the center of hope of the countless humans today.
When such a person appears upon this globe, the human being at last comes to depart as one solid base before the ground of the Providence of Restoration. So it means the question becomes when you will stand upon such a standard and when you will stand in such a position.
If an individual who has stood in such a position steps forth holding content that can become a motive in place of history, that history can inherit it; and also when one goes forth holding some plan of practice together with that motive, through that a new result of practice will appear in history. When we set out all such problems, you must know how necessary it is for an individual standing in a completely unshakable position.
Unification Church Members, Who Must Stand upon a Solid Foundation
Today you are people who stand in place of the thirty million people. How much have you, men (if men) or women (if women) who stand in place of the thirty million people, longed for a self who could stand upon one foundation standing in place of the whole of these people? In loving the thirty million, you must stand not in some intermediate position but upon a solid foundation, that is, at a base from which God can depart. And thus, one must say one will take responsibility for the thirty million and fight on. It is such a person that the Will requires.
If such people are connected and achieve families, and those families are connected and a clan is organized, and such clans are connected and one people is organized, then through that people a new world will at last come to be spread out powerfully together with God’s Will. Even when we set out such a problem, you must feel how necessary self-standing upon a solid foundation is.
When we look at the four thousand years of history until Jesus’ time centering on the Will of God’s providence, that history was a shaking history. It means it was a history that could not grasp a fixed point of settlement. Because it did not become a solid ground as one rock, the human being could not set both feet there, and through that, everything he did could not become a new plan of groping before history and could not stand upon a foundation that could sway that age.
The One who came from such a position to bear that mission is Jesus. But Jesus’ mission has been extended until now, two thousand years later. And thus today there is a band who feel a responsibility of having to gather that mission once again centering on the Republic of Korea if the Republic of Korea, and who say they will carry out that responsibility.
So how serious must that band be?
Today the world situation is shaking. The destiny of the nation too is shaking. You must know that if an individual, or a family, or a clan appears in this age who can gather the nation and world that are amid such a situation and make of it a solid ground as a base, from there a new world can be founded.
Therefore, we must become an “I” who can be so. Because God has come forth desiring such an “I,” God’s Will cannot be achieved without us.
Therefore, if there be a person who can achieve that Will, God will without fail drop anchor in that person. God will seek in that ground the motive of a halt or of a start. When we set out such things, we must stand upon a firm foundation. One must become an individual standing upon a firm foundation, a family standing upon a firm foundation, a clan standing upon a firm foundation.
Then what kind of band must become a clan that stands upon such a foundation? It means we Unification Church members today must become it. The people that stand upon such a foundation too must become us. And the nation that stands upon such a foundation, too, must become the Republic of Korea, which must bear the mission of the third Israel. That is why it is a problem.
If it were to become so, one must in every respect begin from an individual standing upon a firm foundation. If one would become such an individual, one must become an individual standing upon a conviction by which one can say, “What I do is unmistakable action, and what I speak too is unmistakable speech.
Therefore, my words and actions stand in place of history, so only by believing my words and seeing my actions and following can every historic problem be resolved and settled.”
The words spoken from such a position must not be temporary words but words that can continue until the whole Republic of Korea appears as a result that can be so. It is the same with action. In the process of thus advancing, one must go forth standing in a position of saying, “However difficult a problem there may be, for us who stand upon a firm foundation it is not a problem.”
Therefore, if our Unification Church too advances, standing in such a position, however difficult the road we go on may be said to be, it is not a problem. As long as that difficulty is not a position beyond the firm ground on which we stand, we can, without yielding to it, certainly pledge a result of victory. You must know that such a problem is a problem resolved by each of our responsibilities.
Jesus, in exhorting one of weak faith, said, “Believe; to him that believeth nothing shall be impossible.” Here the words “believe” are not saying to believe vaguely. It is saying to stand upon a solid foundation and stand upon the rock and not be shaken. It is saying not to stand upon such a foundation, in a position of being swayed by anyone’s interference or invasion.
If One Would Stand Upon a Solid Foundation
God always wishes that we ourselves be equipped with subjecthood and establish a leading authority. That God emphasizes absolute faith to you who are in a vague position is also because He requires, even temporarily, an absolutely solid ground. So we must know how pitiful God is.
God is in a position of having to lead all existing beings and all worlds toward one purpose upon an eternal foundation. And yet He has come to be a God who spreads the Will of the providence while standing in a position of having lost such a subject position and seeking a motive by equipping a relative standard as a makeshift. So we must think once again how pitiful a God He is.
That is why the Principle is necessary for us. It means the principles and rules are necessary. Those principles and rules are not something that can be interfered with by anyone. They are not within the sphere of history but at a base that transcends history and can move history. They are not in the position of a historical result. Therefore, the Principle is something that neither ancestors nor descendants can interfere with. Therefore, the ancestors too must conform, and the descendants too must conform. Not only that, history too must conform. Because the Principle itself is principled content holding absolute subjecthood, our Unification Church asserts the Principle.
The road of the Principle is a road that asserts and goes to make the solid foundation shine, to widen the solid foundation to reveal the solid foundation. You must know this point. That is why the road of the Principle is not a road one can cross easily. It is not a road one can tread and pass over readily by some means and method. The road of the Principle is a road one must tread and cross step by step.
If ten people go, the manner of going must be the same for all. Otherwise, one cannot say one has gone this road. Even if it be a hundred people, unless the manner of going is the same for all, one cannot say one has gone this road, and even if it be ten million people, they cannot but pass through a course of the same manner.
The road of the Principle is one on which, even though one goes a road of a distance of ten steps, one must transcend history and leave behind a form and go. Here our ancestors cannot add or subtract, and our descendants cannot add or subtract, and even God cannot add or subtract. You must know that such a road is the road of the Principle.
But the road of indemnity is not so. Even though it be a tenth of a tenth, a hundredth of a hundredth, if one is equipped with a conditional form, one can indemnify. We know that such a road is the road of Restoration through Indemnity.
But what is necessary for us is not Restoration through Indemnity but, in every respect, the Principle. Only when there is this Principle does a historic origin at last unfold from there, and only when one is grounded in this Principle can one at last stand upon a firm foundation. Therefore, how much one reveals of oneself standing upon this foundation becomes a problem centering on how much one leads a life in accord with the Principle.
Even when we set out our Unification Church members or the special trainees for the Blessing this time, the standard by which they are evaluated is how much, after coming to know the Will, they have led a life in accord with the content of the Principle, even though the period after coming to know the Will is shorter than the past period.
That is why the question of how much, during that period of one hour, or one year, three years, ten years since entering the Unification Church, one has come forth standing upon a principled position and a solid ground becomes what can make the value of one’s own life shine hereafter and can determine the problem of one’s life.
Why is that? Because by standing upon a principled standard, one can be near to the absolute standard. If one’s standard of living is in accord with the Principle, from there that life is in accord with the eternal Will, and with content in accord with that standard, one’s own eternal problem of life and death is determined. That is because living centered on the Principle becomes one firm foundation.
That is why a life apart from the Principle is exceedingly dangerous. But you must know that when one has led a life grounded in the Principle and keeping step with the Principle, a firm and solid foundation remains on the course of our lives.
Therefore we must speak together with the Principle, and live together with the Principle, and put into practice together with the Principle. You must know that only through that can one awaken history, and lead history along, and found a new age.
We, Who Must Lead a Thoroughgoing Principled Life
You must know that unless one leads one’s inner living or outer living or economic living or life of faith, upon such a foundation, it cannot become a stable living. A person living in such a position can determine even our problem of life and death. Such living in the present world becomes a ground that remains not only in the present but even into the eternal world. Knowing that this is the Principle the Unification Church asserts, you must live grounded in this Principle.
You must bear in mind that every purpose we require in our lifetime too becomes one certain ground that can remain eternally, beginning from a life in accord with the Principle.
A person who lives so while savoring that content and investing that content and living faithfully cannot grow weary however he would. If God is together with a person who leads such a life and he acts, it becomes a more solid foundation and can become a motive for founding tomorrow’s new history. Therefore, we must know that if we continue such a living, it becomes the origin of our own horizontal development and vertical development, and we cannot but make more effort. We come to think that this is the position Unification Church members must take at present.
I believe you will know that Korea today is advancing toward a point of imminent crisis. Then how, and by whose strength, will one change this point in time? It cannot be changed by any national policy. It can be changed according to how many people there are among those people who hold a certain conviction that can connect those people’s destiny to the destiny of the world. That becomes the motive that can save the nation’s urgent destiny.
At such a present point, you must feel all the more keenly how great a weight the attitude, or the position, of us believers of the Unification Church who are leading a life grounded in the Unification Church Principle occupies. We know well the fact that when one asks where there is one origin and foundation that can make not only the Republic of Korea but also all the people of this world gather, one cannot find it anywhere else. It means it must be achieved within our sphere of living centered on the Principle.
From this viewpoint, we must feel how solemn and how tremendous a position the position in which we are placed is. You must know that the solid foundation our individual selves must establish, the solid foundation the family must establish, the solid foundation the people and the nation must establish, begins from the Principle. That is why I consider that one cannot but emphasize all the more the thoroughgoing carrying out of principled living.
