We know well that we today have become descendants of the Fall. It is a fact that one individual of society remains in such a place, and that the family and the tribe and the people and the nation and the world remain in such a place. We also know well that it is our living, as we today go seeking the road of the Way, that we must go back up against such an environment.
The Road the Man of Faith Must Walk
Yet within the environment laid before us there is no content whatever that can be harmonized with us and add to our hope. It means that though we are living within it, it is not an environment in which we can be harmonized with one another or unfold our minds and live. We know that this is due to the Fall. Therefore, because we human beings are such that we must be born within it and live within it and die within it, we cannot but be called pitiful. Yet though we bear a pitiful destiny, it is the road of the Way we must walk today to grope out a road of human life by which we can walk the pitiful road without being pitiful. The question is whether, though we are in such a pitiful environment, we can resolve, crossing beyond all this pitiful content, that I am not pitiful.
If we have some new longing or hope in living today, then in order for that hope to become not a pitiful hope but a happy hope, one must overcome one’s pitiful self and be able to establish for oneself a bond with a self that can be happy. Otherwise, that longing and hope cannot appear as joy. The problem of how man is to overcome and transcend his environment by himself is, in our human living, a problem not confined to the individual alone but one that emerges as a problem of society and, further, emerges as a problem of the world. This is the present situation.
Those who engage in politics agonize, centering upon that politics, over the problem of how to convert the unhappy fortune of the nation into a happy fortune. And so, when there is a bond they have groped out, they writhe while hoping that it may become content of happiness. It is likewise the same with the leaders of religion, if it be religion. Even within an unhappy world environment, one must pursue and long for happiness from such an awakened position that one is not unhappy with oneself. Therefore, we know well the fact that one continues the fight at such a boundary line, denying all the present situations and environment and newly making the self recognized, and then finding how that recognized self is to come into contact with the conditions of happiness.
Even though, through such a fight, one has established at some moment a condition by which one can be joyful centering upon some bond, that bond cannot stand in place of one’s own life course and the whole of history. That bond is far too small when compared with the environment. Therefore, we experience in our daily life of faith the fact that the joy obtained through that small bond is again eroded by the environment and again and again occupied by the bond of the environment. You will know well that from this there comes the conclusion that fallen human beings cannot but writhe upon the course of seeking after what is true.
Then the problem is how this unhappy environment can be left as a condition of happiness, or a condition of longing, within my life course and can be maintained as the center of my living. You must know that this is a more important problem than anything else for the man of faith.
When God would come seeking a place where He can rest upon this earth, He cannot come seeking an unhappy place. Moreover, when heavenly fortune comes seeking this earth, there is no reason that that heavenly fortune would come seeking an unhappy environment either.
When it is said that happiness and hope dwell upon this earth, that indwelling happiness and hope must be able to dwell not for a moment alone but eternally, crossing beyond that life course.
When there is a foundation of such a bond, God, who abides eternally upon the ground of eternity, comes seeking toward that ground of happiness. It means that the heavenly fortune centered upon that center of eternity can also come seeking only when such a condition is established.
The Man of Faith Must Have an Unchanging Mind
When we consider such things, because the road of faith is a road walked centering upon the mind, there is no religion whatever that teaches the man of faith that his mind should change. It teaches that one must have an unchanging mind.
If there is a religion that teaches that the mind held ten years ago must not change ten years later, and that even though the years pass and one’s life course comes to its end, that mind at least must remain unchanged, that religion is a true religion.
There must be a foundation of mind that cannot change. That foundation of mind that does not change must exist not for the sake of what changes and must not desire while taking as its goal something that can change; it must exist for the sake of what does not change and must be able to go forward beholding an unchanging goal. How one is to be equipped with a foundation of mind that can be such is a more important problem than anything else for the man of faith.
Such a foundation of mind is for the man of faith a more important problem than anything else.
Such a foundation of mind becomes for the man of faith an origin of his life course that cannot be exchanged for anything whatever. You must know that from here the worth of the man of faith’s living the life of faith, that is, his original attitude, is equipped.
Such a bond must not be bound as one centering upon one’s own single self; centering upon such a self, one must widen the environment. There, one must accelerate it several times over and widen that bond in all four directions. That how much one has pioneered that environment, through oneself, into a condition of eternal happiness becomes the ground of blessing that person can possess upon going to the heavenly world and becomes the origin of happiness needs no saying twice.
Therefore, in pioneering this road, such happiness cannot be found in the road of happiness that the people of the world today pursue. It means that there is no prospect of it. Why? Because, since this world is the sphere of death, all the longings pursued while breathing together with this world within the sphere of death are fundamentally at variance with the eternity pursued, taking the original attitude as its origin.
The more the environment in which we can breathe externally widens, the more the influence of that external breathing is fundamentally at variance with the inner and essential ground of happiness that we must find and that can remain eternally.
Accordingly, you must know that the larger the external conditions become, the smaller the inner becomes in inverse proportion.
For us to escape this sphere of death that arose through the Fall, we must completely cut off the external environment. And so, because the problem is how to make a sphere that the soul desires and how to develop an inner bond that can remain eternally, there are many restraints upon the road the man of faith walks. You must know that there are many restrictions difficult to bear.
Yet these restrictions are not to bind us. There is a difference between the front and the back of those restrictions. Upon the front, the waves of death beat, but upon the back, the waves of life begin to rise. You must know that there is a difference between heaven and earth, between the great waves of death that beat fiercely outside and the waves of life that begin to rise quietly within.
Therefore, in living while defending against the waves of death, such a one cannot but be a lonely person. You must know that such a one cannot but be a pitiful person.
Yet one cannot forget and avoid that lonely place merely because one is lonely. You must know the fact that we are placed in a position of having to defend this lonely place to the death and defend the toilsome place to the death.
If one should depart from this position, one’s life waves would be swept away instantly without a trace by the raging waves of death that seek to swallow up that loneliness. Such is the fight between the front and back of human beings living today. Therefore, we can feel that our minds do not rest for a moment but tremble within a world of the fight of terror. The stronger the mind that truly wishes to go the road of Heaven becomes, and the more strongly Heaven’s longing sprouts deep within one’s mind, the more one will feel that that mind is seized with infinite terror.
When one substantial image relative to such a mind comes to appear, the form of Satan, who has trampled upon history, sometimes appears there. When it becomes so, a fight between the sphere of death and the sphere of life unfolds. When, having fought in that place without our knowing it, one comes to feel it and steps forth pledging with the whole of one’s life course, that appears in form, and a spiritual experience unfolds.
I, Who Must Take Hold of God
Here I am in an exceedingly weak place, and on the contrary, evil is in an exceedingly strong place. It means that the place of goodness is no more than a single point.
To give an example, if one marks a point upon the surface of water with a finger and then withdraws the finger, the moment one withdraws that finger, that place comes to be occupied again by the water. In the same way, the foundation of joy that has arisen within our minds is no more than a single point, like putting a finger into water.
Just as the moment one withdraws the finger from the water, the water occupies that place all at once, so a person who lives a spiritual life will experience the fact that the powers of evil attack from all four directions, seeking to occupy at a stroke that one standard of goodness.
Therefore, if I am to not lose that standard of goodness, I must do it with all my mind and with all my will and with all my nature. Without doing so, it will not do. It is in a place of doing everything that eternity begins; in a middle place of doing it moderately, eternity can absolutely never be. Therefore, if we remain in a middle form, we cannot but end within the sphere of death. It means that one must cross beyond this middle position that belongs to the sphere of death and do everything of oneself.
In doing everything, it is not to do everything within the sphere of the limits of the instinctive nature or physical strength with which we were born. One requires a condition by which one can be said to have done everything, crossing beyond that. Therefore, one must stand in a place of saying, “O God! Help me. My strength and ability alone are insufficient, so O God, help me.” Then, because there is a power by which God helps, together with that power, by doing everything of oneself, one can cross beyond the limit line of the strength one possesses. You must know that only then does God make a new departure, staking the rest of our lives on it.
When Jesus came to this earth and proclaimed the gospel, he spoke revolutionary words. What are they? It is to love me more than anyone. It means that unless one loves me more than one’s child and more than one’s wife, one cannot become my disciple and is not worthy of me. Moreover, it means that unless one bears one’s own cross and follows me, one cannot become a disciple. It means that one must bear one’s own cross.
What sort of cross is that cross?
That cross is a cross of two sides. It means that, standing in an isolated position swept by the waves of death, one must take hold of God and, being small, fight against what is great. To block what is great through the bond of the sphere of death and to maintain my small self, God, who has been blocking the waves of death until now, must become a background like a rampart that can be trusted. It means that otherwise I am pushed back mercilessly, and so I must take hold of God as firmly as iron and stone.
When one does not retreat, taking my small movement as the motive, but breaks through the line of death, God comes following with the power that pushes me forward, is set at the front, and comes occupying the bond of evil through me. The road of discerning such a bond is the road of Restoration. You must know that because man committed the Fall, the standard that man also carries out for Restoration is thus established.
When a typhoon blows in, go once to the sea. It means consider how anxious in mind must be the boatman aboard a boat that is crossing crisis after crisis of the sea’s waves because of the storm. To go discerning such a state is the road of faith.
When one sees that, having thought the one crisis one has crossed was the last crisis threatening one's life, higher and greater waves come pressing continuously; the farther one goes from the land, the more one cannot but feel the threat to life and cannot but feel terror. Isn't the man of faith who walks the road of faith like the position of a boatman who steers the boat with an anxious mind to escape the fate of shipwreck amid raging waves? You must know that the road of faith we walk today is such a road.
When you speak of God’s Providence of Restoration in words, it seems simple. In this Korea, the hand of God’s Providence of Restoration is connected. Not only that, it means that the hand of God’s Providence of Restoration has reached every nation of the world as well. When we look centering upon Korea today, Korea is no more than a single point among the many nations of the world.
If one were to carry out the Providence of Restoration centering upon one nation in such a position, it would mean that that nation must have an hour of bond in which it cannot but be swept up in such waves because countless evil nations invade it.
The Person Who Can Become the Lord of Creation
When we look centering upon the Republic of Korea, in the Republic of Korea there are countless tribes. Among these countless tribes there are countless individuals. It means that I am one person among those countless individuals. The worldwide fortune of evil that beats in from without today does not beat in, leaving aside a historical limit line; it surges within our sphere of life today, centering upon the bond of a single day. Such a time is precisely now.
When, amid such things, I consider myself, who am bound to some one tribe of the Republic of Korea, it means considering how far off is the world of victory, the world of longing, through which I must pass. It will not do to say today that it is enough if I simply live in this place. What we who walk that road must do is to be equipped with the authority of the lord of all creation (만물의 영장), who, as a Son of God, can have dominion over the whole Cosmos.
Then what does the phrase “lord of all creation” mean?
Who is the lord of all creation? Today it is said to be man, but the fundamental lord of all creation is God. Is it not so? You will know that there is a spirit (영, 靈). Man has that spirit. Because man is the head (장, 長) among spirits (영, 靈), in the end, connecting him directly with God, he is called the lord.
To be the lord of all creation cannot come about by man himself alone. It means: how can man, who is himself a created being, become the lord of all creation? A created being is a relative resultant body. Merely by being a created being, one cannot commune with the cause and cannot occupy the cause. A created being is so arranged as to be occupied by the cause. You are, undoubtedly, resultant beings.
When one says “lord,” the word “head” (장, 長) means the center among spirits (영, 靈). You must know that this word is spoken tacitly about the relationship in which God and man were originally one.
How complicated a position the Republic of Korea is in today! Herein is the place where each of you can rest inside the boundary line of the Republic of Korea.
Where would that place be?
Would it be Japan, or would it be China? This means that this is a serious problem. When it is asked where the ground is upon which you can rest, the question is whether it is inside the Republic of Korea. With only the inside of the Republic of Korea, it will not do. From a position newly transformed and restored to Heaven’s side, the Republic of Korea is needed, but if it is asked whether the Republic of Korea as it presently is can become the ground of the world’s victorious Restoration, the ground of rest, it means that it cannot.
Then what must be done to have a ground of rest for world restoration?
You must know the fact that one must overcome a worldwide road of suffering. Therefore, it will not do for people who say they will become God’s sons and daughters to have a devoted practice offered as a son within the sphere of the Republic of Korea. It means that such a person perhaps becomes a son or daughter of God within the sphere of a province, if it be a province, or of a county, if it be a county, of the Republic of Korea, but cannot become a son or daughter who can step forth as a representative before the whole body of God’s nation.
Therefore, the lord communes with God. Yet though it is said that man is the lord of all creation, not everyone is a lord. It means that those who can become the lord are separate. One who is qualified to join that club of those who can become the lord is at least not a person who lives for the individual. He lives for the whole. God seeks to accomplish His longing centering upon such a person. When it becomes so, whose Kingdom of Heaven does it become? It becomes not God’s Kingdom of Heaven but that person’s Kingdom of Heaven.
That God, passing through a long course of history and pressing forward the Providence of Restoration, has come seeking the Unification Church of the Republic of Korea today is not to abide in the Unification Church within the Republic of Korea. Therefore, it must, of course, lead this body and become the center of the Republic of Korea, and further, it must go as far as the place of the center of the world. For that, one must overcome all the surging waves of death and go forward. And so, only when one is equipped with every secret method and every piece of equipment by which one can defend this side even after crossing to the other side does it become the origin of a Kingdom of Heaven that can remain within the sphere of death.
Yet because we are placed in a position of having to cross the river without yet having been to that place we aim at, when the river is battered by raging waves and storms, we ourselves who cross that river are likewise battered. Here there can be no eternal rest. Jesus came to this earth and went in such a position. Therefore, that he must come again has significance in this sense too.
The Unification Church, Which Must Be Victorious Centering Upon Spirit and Body
Though Jesus was sacrificed within the sphere of death, by being resurrected he made an origin of the sphere of life. Only when that origin crosses beyond a worldwide limit line and is connected with the heavenly kingdom, and he comes again to the world of death, following that connected bond, with such content as can receive a bride, can one speak of glory or of victory. Yet in Jesus’ time it did not become so. Then what is it that Christianity today hopes for? That is, for what does it hope for the Lord who is coming? Overall, it is to greet the Kingdom of Heaven.
A person belonging to the Unification Church of the Republic of Korea today is in an individual position, but that individual can represent the Unification Church and can represent the Republic of Korea and can represent the world. That individual must possess content beyond the value by which he can overcome the worldwide sphere of death. When it becomes so, wherever that person abides is the Kingdom of Heaven. Anywhere is the Kingdom of Heaven.
You will feel that, while walking the road of faith centering upon the Unification Church until now, before the road you walk in faith, though you know not what it is, great raging waves that are merciless and terrifying come sweeping in. The problem is how to overcome this and cross beyond. When we are simply helpless before these raging waves that press in, if there are ten, all ten are wrecked.
Then what is it that we must possess here? What is it that we need? We must possess something by which we can drop anchor at some resting place, that is, at a nest.
However much I may be able to go back and forth, in my present position I can only go back and forth left and right; I cannot go back and forth forward and backward. It means that I stand upon a road of destiny where I can advance but cannot retreat. It means that not only can one not retreat, but the more time passes, the more a person who does not possess a bond by which he can advance has no way to overcome the terror that presses in. Here, one must not be anxious within that fear because one is afraid, but must have a remaining strength of life in pulling the lifeline by which one can forget that fear and live. And with that, one must take it as a stimulus of hope and be able to surpass the sense of terror. You must know that when it becomes so, hope begins upon the road one walks. Then would not God also, who beholds that, once again consider it?
You must know that the road of faith is not a road of retreating. Because the road of faith is not a road of retreating but a road that must be walked, gathered, left, and right, one cannot go alone and needs someone to cheer one on. It means that because one cannot know alone, one needs a friend who teaches and teaches a teacher.
Therefore, one must know who it is that goes ahead and must know who it is that one can rely upon as a comrade at one’s side. A person who does not have a comrade who can comfort him at his side is a lonely person, and a person who does not have someone who goes ahead of him and says it is right and looks back and teaches him is an exceedingly pitiful person.
Then if there is one who came to this earth in history and parted the waves of humanity’s death and went, who would that be? It means, would it not be Jesus, the Messiah of the world, rather than the Messiah of Israel, who came and went saying he was God’s only begotten Son?
Although he came to cross the crisis of suffering as a substantial being centering upon spirit and body, the sphere of death of the historical nation swallowed Jesus. Therefore, only spiritually did he cross beyond the historical sphere of death and, as the prince of victory of that nation, pave a road by which one could cross the fierce sea that rages in the spiritual world of death. So it means that if one only follows him, one can go to a spiritual world of happiness. This has been the Christian thought until now.
Yet our Unification Church today must go not only toward that but also toward the place of victory found by shedding blood, centering upon spirit and body, toward the nest of rest. This is the road of destiny of the Unification Church, which must go on today and tomorrow. You, too, are upon the same road of destiny.
The One and Only Road That Can Save Life
Then how must you go?
You must clearly know what the lifeline is and take firm hold of it. You must be able to say that this at least must not be let go. You must bear this in mind. A road one cannot but walk even if one would not, a road on which there is trouble if one seeks not to go, a road on which threat comes all at once: you must know that such a road is the road on which God and Satan are decided.
You must take firm hold of this. This must not be held with the hand alone; one must bind it about one's own body. And so one must pull this lifeline. When one pulls that lifeline and yet cannot advance, one must open one’s eyes wide and gaze straight at least in that direction. Otherwise it will not do. And while doing so, it means waiting until there is some signal from that place. One must have an earnest mind, hoping that there will be some command from there, that God’s grace will come down. It is in the final place, where one cries out before God with a piercing mind, asking Him to save one, that God sends down a new signal.
In following God’s command, given in such a place, to take such and such a measure, there is no room to think of anything like testing. It means that here there is nothing but practice. Only practice is the road of life. You must know that only practicing becomes the motive by which one can come into contact with the principle of life. This or that circumstance is not the problem. It means that the bond between you and me is not the problem. It means it is not the only road by which one can save his life, that of deciding that this road is a road on which one can go straight together with God’s command and, without thinking of other things, practicing alone? You must know that we stand within such a sphere of destiny.
All of you, consider once a time when rain comes or when a typhoon blows in. Men ought at least once to ride a boat and meet a typhoon. When one thinks of it, it is quite splendid. If someone is killed at sea by a typhoon, it is pitiful, but from a child’s perspective it is quite interesting. Yet how anxious a matter it would be!
If one looks upon it with a pitying mind, one’s mind is anxious, but it is a very splendid spectacle. When the boat rides the wave and goes whoosh up to the top of the wave, one can see even the bottom of the boat, but when the boat goes whoosh down together with the wave, one cannot see even the tip of the mast. At such a time, while one is anxious lest the boat not come out again, if the boat comes up whoosh, one heaves a sigh of relief. It means that that is the most splendid spectacle among spectacles.
Yet a person who has undergone it and who knows those circumstances well cannot watch it even if told to watch. A person who does not know can watch, but a person who has undergone it and knows cannot watch. Consider it. When the boat is thrust up to the top of a great wave and then goes down and becomes invisible, one’s liver shrinks to the size of a bean, wondering whether the boat has capsized. Then when that boat rises again, one cries out involuntarily, “Ah, God protects it; it is coming up, it is coming up!” It is so.
When was it? It was probably about the year 1959 or 1960. It was before the Teacher’s Holy Wedding, so it would be about then. I went fishing in the West Sea aboard a boat called the Opal-ho, and as I sat quietly aboard that boat, it seemed there was some ill omen. From the time the boat set out, I felt not good at all.
When one does not feel good, one ought to retreat, but we simply went. I fished and caught one octopus, but even so, I did not feel excellent. So, giving up fishing and everything, I steered the boat and came out to the shore, and sure enough, the rain began to come. Six people, including myself, had gone, and thinking that even though we were at the shore, it would not do since it was night, I brought two people out with me, and three people simply remained at the shore. Those remaining three said that since they had come out as far as the coast, there was no worry. Because being out there was the same as having come to level ground, they said they did not worry; so, leaving them aboard the boat, only we came out onto the land.
Yet suddenly a typhoon began to blow. Since it was night and the boat could not be seen, I thought, “They must all be dead.” When dawn came and I came out, fortunately the boat was afloat upon the water. Yet it was tossing greatly in the waves. It means that the position of one who has left behind the people who were fishing together and looks on is different. I thought it was a grave matter. This boat was an old boat, and it had been tossing all night, hanging by a single rope, so that rope would snap, and if that happened, would not the boat go drifting about wherever the wind drove it?
If that happened, it would strike against the cliff of the great precipice-mountain on the left. And then what is the next difficulty?
If the boat were wrecked, one might say that they could just swim up to the shore, but by no means. It means that one cannot crawl out. When the water rushes in and then goes rushing back out, it is stronger than the force of a rope pulling one, so one cannot come up onto the shore but is swept back down.
The Sphere of Resurrection Obtained in a Place of Resolving Upon Death
Therefore, even if one is shipwrecked and reaches land, if there are rocks, one cannot climb up. If it were level ground, one could climb up and live, but otherwise one cannot climb up. Why? Because the water that has rushed in coils about the person mercilessly and beats him. Looking at people who died in that way, their fingernails are all worn away, and their bones are protruding from struggling to live. It means that they struggle so much to live.
When the waves beat upon the boat, the boat and the rock collide with one another as if to test their strength, and the boat is smashed to pieces. Yet at that time, what became of this boat? At a place about five meters off there was a valley where the mountain ridge divided on both sides and a stream flowed; and God, protecting it, the waves drove this boat into that place. Once one is driven into that valley, it is so arranged that one does not easily come out. When the waves beat, it goes in further but does not come out. Because it became so, they were saved.
So, in running up the mountain to save those people, the raindrops, like grains of sand, driven fiercely by the typhoon, beat upon me stingingly. They were very stinging. Yet is there room to think of such things? The question is whether there is room to think. Even the boatman, who had come along after we asked to hire him for a single day to go fishing, was now in a position of running to save them who were at the point of death; it means that it was not so arranged that one could merely stand and watch. Where is there leisure to think about pain and being torn and disliking it? It means that one forgets one’s own self and runs.
In such a position, when I came to think, “I have no relation whatever with those people, so why do I do this?” I recall that I prayed there, thinking that God would be concerned beyond that. The thought came to me: so in such a place I can be like this.
Then how would the minds of those people have been? They would have wished that the person who was seeking to save them would come near quickly. Crying, “Alas, I am dying! Alas, I am dying!” They would have been conscious of death several thousand times in their minds, because their lives were in imminent peril. Because in such a place the rejoicing of life again unfolds; a new vital force comes forth. Do you understand? It means that the place where, from that place of feeling death, dying a hundred times and dying a thousand times, one receives new salvation and is resurrected and raises one’s hands and rejoices is such. If, from a place where one knows not whether one will die or live, one draws upon historical vital force and fills up a pit greater than the pit of death, if it be a pit, and stretches forth, from here a sphere of resurrection arises.
Therefore, Jesus too, with the cross before him, prayed in the garden of Gethsemane in a serious place where he knew not whether he would die or live. That he alone should die was not the problem. Because in such a serious place he crossed beyond death and stood in the sphere of resurrection; from there a new history of resurrection unfolded.
You, too, will have seen Korean trousers being turned inside out. In the old days when we lived wearing cotton-padded trousers, I saw my mother turn old padded trousers inside out and take out the cotton wadding and sew them once again, and they became new trousers. In the same way, that turning inside out is precisely the sphere of resurrection.
Jesus said,
“Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or what ye shall put on; but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”
Thus, a person who seeks righteousness becomes a resurrected person who can possess the nation. One must find a bond of life stronger than eating and than wearing and than drinking. Otherwise, however well one eats and however well one dresses, it means that it is all a vain life.
All of you too are in a position like a boat that has its rope tied at the wharf. It means that, without knowing it oneself, one has a rope tied. Yet human beings live going back and forth without even knowing such a thing. And so the tied ropes become entangled. It means that there is a tied rope, but because they do not know to which side it is tied, they turn this way and turn that way, and it is all entangled.
Some people are standing sideways, and some are facing the other way, and some are standing upside down; all are living without even knowing whether there is a rope or not.
The Road of Faith That Must Be Walked Quickly
You must know that there is a lifeline. It means that there is a lifeline. That is, you are bound to a rope bound by blood lineage.
Then what is it that we must know here?
One must not be bound by that rope. It means that I must ride that rope. How good it would be when one discovers that lifeline! This is the road of faith by which one can enter a new road of human life. Yet it will not do to say, having discovered this lifeline, “What is there to hurry about now?” There is tomorrow, and there is the day after, so is it not all right to go at any time? It cannot be so.
Because the road we must go is far, we must live the life of faith with a mind that every moment is time-sensitive. Moreover, knowing that it is a road of faith that must be so, you must always pull that rope while chanting heave-ho, heave-ho.
Both singing hymns and keeping time and calling upon the Father while praying are that undertaking. Saying, “Save me,” must also be that undertaking. Yet if one does it wrong, it all goes awry.
There is a saying that the child who frets gets the breast, is there not? “Father! I am dying; is it not God who must save me?” It means that He saves even if one abuses Him so. We are doing such work. You, too, will have such a real feeling. One ought to fit the lifeline about one’s waist, but not knowing this and carrying it on one’s back throughout one’s life, one keeps catching it on stones, and it keeps swaying, and so the lifeline is severed. If that cord is severed, one falls without fail into hell. Yet if one goes holding fast to this lifeline, even if one falls, one does not go to the very bottom of hell but is caught about the middle. There is the intermediate spirit world. You must know this.
We must walk that road regardless of what someone beside us is doing, whether he is eating or resting. It means that far ahead, several thousand people are all going alike. If one goes pulling without rest, offering devotion and writhing, other people too wind up that rope. And then one comes to feel that countless people fall away from it. It is like running a marathon. As one runs, there comes to be a first place and a second place. History is like that. Until now, for thousands of years, countless spirit individuals have come forth bound to that rope.
If among them one takes first place and goes to that world and forms a bond with that winding device and winds it up whole, the spirit world is restored.
For that, one must make concrete that can be gripped and wound up whole. In other words, it means that one must make a wharf that will not give way even though one grips and winds up that whole boat. Do you understand? If there is a nation made in that way, that nation will be the nation that the Lord will come to the earth and rule.
If the Republic of Korea is to be the nation to which the Lord comes, it must become such a nation as will not be shaken even though it grips and winds up all the nations of the world. It must become such a wharf. Then how strongly must it be made? Here cement and gravel and sand and reinforcing bars are needed. In making a wharf, to make the concrete strong, one must first weave the reinforcing bars. What do the reinforcing bars mean? They mean people. Among people, they are strong people. There must be strong people whom no one can break, even if he would break them, and cannot pierce, even if he would pierce them. Centering upon men of faith who contain such fidelity and integrity, one must tie the rope. And so one must set up a device by which, if one only presses the switch, all can be saved at once. Such a historic mission lies with us.
If one hopes that the Unification Church will bear such a tremendous mission, what will you become in making that concrete? Will you become reinforcing bars, or become sand, or become gravel? Which will you become? Let us consider. It means “become reinforcing bars.”
If you cannot even become gravel, it means you should become at least a grain of sand. And if you cannot become even a grain of sand, it means you should become at least the water that is for the sake of the others. Water is what is absorbed everywhere. It is also by the action of water that everything can be bound together. You must know that.
When it becomes so, God can hereafter save a new people, a new nation, a new world. One must make a lighthouse of life and act as a lighthouse of salvation before the world of darkness in which death rages. We must know that it is our mission to make a lighthouse of life.
It Is the Way of the Religious Person to Follow a Right Leader
And the question is how strong you are and how much more you contribute. Here, one’s own dignity and face, and one’s own past, are not the problem. Upon entering the Unification Church, it is all the same destiny, so where is there any excellence or inferiority? Whether a doctor of philosophy enters, or a person who has served as a minister of state enters, or a president enters, it is all the same. One must walk the formula course that one must walk oneself.
Knowing such things, what is it you must do here?
Whether it be night or day, each must simply walk the road he must walk. If there is a person who guides me and leads me in a more right direction, one must simply follow that person. If he goes to the mountain, one must follow to the mountain; if he goes to the sea, one must follow to the sea; and even if he goes into a ditch, one must take hold of his arm and take hold of the hem of his garment and follow. One must form a bond by which one can be such. If one cannot form such a bond, it is a difficulty. Regarding that bond as more important than one’s own life, one must follow without falling away in order not to lose it. That is the way of religion.
That is why in Christianity it is said that Jesus is the bridegroom and the believers are in the position of the bride. “Bridegroom” and “bride” are perfect words. They are the closest of relationships. Wherever the bridegroom goes, the bride too must go. It means that if the bridegroom goes east, the bride follows east, and if he goes west, she follows west, sharing his life course without distinguishing night or day. Because the road of faith is a road that must be walked bearing such a destiny of eating together and living together, the words “bridegroom” and “bride” are perfect words for the relationship between the leader who must walk that road and the one who is led. Even seeing that, God is truly a wise One. You must know that because He is the King of wisdom, He set forth such an appellation and exercised the way of a parent and thus formed the Christian cultural sphere of today.
Therefore, for the sake of this road, one can go without yielding even though one dies on the way. You must know that Christianity has developed until now toward one external Kingdom of Heaven of victory, widening more and more such a bond of integrity and loyalty.
It is the same with the Unification Church today. It means that the Teacher himself is likewise. It means that he is now going toward that road. He is going at this hour today, and going on this day, and going in this month as well. You must know that he is thus going.
In such a position of going, we must take into ourselves and know the whole mind of the friend who guides ahead and of the people who go ahead and, making it our property, follow. Even at the cost of exchanging it for one’s own life, even at the cost of my dying, only when one dies clinging to his words does the person who is alive there take responsibility for him and resurrect him.
Do you understand what I mean?
If one dies while listening to his words, will one not be able at least to receive pity, being called pitiful? It means that upon going to the spirit world, one at least prays for that person.
Did Jesus’ disciples listen to Jesus’ words, or did they not? They did not listen, did they? If, not having listened, they simply went on in that state, the relationship would be severed, and so one could not even pray in Jesus’ name.
That is why Jesus, after he was resurrected, asked Peter,
“Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these? (John 21:15-17).
That was to set up for Peter the condition that he had listened to Jesus’ words, the condition that he had loved him. Otherwise, even judging by Peter’s character, he would have been the very first to run away. Only if he left behind the word that, even though he died, he died believing in Jesus and died having listened to Jesus’ words could they at least pray for him in the heavenly world.
Considering that it was so because there was such a love of God, you who stand upon such a road of destiny must grip and wind up the rope of life. If you are in a position where you must exchange your grip upon that rope, you must exchange it. And so, to go to one place of rest on a day of liberation, one must invest every devotion and every vital force without sparing.
In investing, only when you pledge yourselves to bear a result of value that cannot be exchanged for anything whatever are you equipped with the attitude of a right man of faith. You must know the fact that, otherwise, one cannot escape the sphere of death.
