The World’s Religions

131:4.1The mis­sion­ar­ies of Mel­chiz­e­dek car­ried the teach­ings of the one God with them wher­ever they jour­neyed. Much of this mono­the­is­tic doc­trine, to­gether with other and pre­vi­ous con­cepts, be­came em­bod­ied in the sub­se­quent teach­ings of Hin­duism. Je­sus and Ga­nid made the fol­low­ing ex­cerpts:

131:4.2“He is the great God, in ev­ery way su­preme. He is the Lord who en­com­passes all things. He is the cre­ator and con­trol­ler of the uni­verse of uni­verses. God is one God; he is alone and by him­self; he is the only one. And this one God is our Maker and the last des­tiny of the soul. The Su­preme One is bril­liant be­yond de­scrip­tion; he is the Light of Lights. Ev­ery heart and ev­ery world is il­lu­mi­nated by this di­vine light. God is our pro­tec­tor—he stands by the side of his crea­tures—and those who learn to know him be­come im­mor­tal. God is the great source of en­ergy; he is the Great Soul. He ex­er­cises uni­ver­sal lord­ship over all. This one God is lov­ing, glo­ri­ous, and adorable. Our God is su­preme in power and abides in the su­preme abode. This true Per­son is eter­nal and di­vine; he is the pri­mal Lord of heaven. All the proph­ets have hailed him, and he has re­vealed him­self to us. We wor­ship him. O Su­preme Per­son, source of be­ings, Lord of cre­ation, and ruler of the uni­verse, re­veal to us, your crea­tures, the power whereby you abide im­ma­nent! God has made the sun and the stars; he is bright, pure, and self-ex­is­tent. His eter­nal knowl­edge is di­vinely wise. The Eter­nal is un­pen­e­trated by evil. Inas­much as the uni­verse sprang from God, he does rule it ap­pro­pri­ately. He is the cause of cre­ation, and hence are all things es­tab­lished in him.

131:4.3“God is the sure refuge of ev­ery good man when in need; the Im­mor­tal One cares for all man­kind. God’s sal­va­tion is strong and his kind­ness is gra­cious. He is a lov­ing pro­tec­tor, a blessed de­fender. Says the Lord: ‘I dwell within their own souls as a lamp of wis­dom. I am the splen­dor of the splen­did and the good­ness of the good. Where two or three gather to­gether, there am I also.’ The crea­ture can­not es­cape the pres­ence of the Cre­ator. The Lord even counts the cease­less wink­ing of ev­ery mor­tal’s eyes; and we wor­ship this di­vine Be­ing as our in­sep­a­ra­ble com­pan­ion. He is all-pre­vail­ing, boun­ti­ful, om­ni­pres­ent, and in­finitely kind. The Lord is our ruler, shel­ter, and su­preme con­trol­ler, and his primeval spirit dwells within the mor­tal soul. The Eter­nal Wit­ness to vice and virtue dwells within man’s heart. Let us long med­i­tate on the adorable and di­vine Viv­i­fier; let his spirit fully di­rect our thoughts. From this un­real world lead us to the real! From dark­ness lead us to the light! From death guide us to im­mor­tal­ity!

131:4.4“With our hearts purged of all hate, let us wor­ship the Eter­nal. Our God is the Lord of prayer; he hears the cry of his chil­dren. Let all men sub­mit their wills to him, the Res­o­lute. Let us de­light in the lib­er­al­ity of the Lord of prayer. Make prayer your in­most friend and wor­ship your soul’s sup­port. ‘If you will but wor­ship me in love,’ says the Eter­nal, ‘I will give you the wis­dom to at­tain me, for my wor­ship is the virtue com­mon to all crea­tures.’ God is the il­lu­mi­na­tor of the gloomy and the power of those who are faint. Since God is our strong friend, we have no more fear. We praise the name of the never-con­quered Con­queror. We wor­ship him be­cause he is man’s faith­ful and eter­nal helper. God is our sure leader and un­fail­ing guide. He is the great par­ent of heaven and earth, pos­sessed of un­lim­ited en­ergy and in­fi­nite wis­dom. His splen­dor is sub­lime and his beauty di­vine. He is the su­preme refuge of the uni­verse and the change­less guard­ian of ev­er­last­ing law. Our God is the Lord of life and the Com­forter of all men; he is the lover of man­kind and the helper of those who are dis­tressed. He is our life giver and the Good Shep­herd of the hu­man flocks. God is our fa­ther, brother, and friend. And we long to know this God in our in­ner be­ing.

131:4.5“We have learned to win faith by the yearn­ing of our hearts. We have at­tained wis­dom by the re­straint of our senses, and by wis­dom we have ex­pe­ri­enced peace in the Su­preme. He who is full of faith wor­ships truly when his in­ner self is in­tent upon God. Our God wears the heav­ens as a man­tle; he also in­hab­its the other six wide-spread­ing uni­verses. He is su­preme over all and in all. We crave for­give­ness from the Lord for all of our tres­passes against our fel­lows; and we would re­lease our friend from the wrong he has done us. Our spirit loathes all evil; there­fore, O Lord, free us from all taint of sin. We pray to God as a com­forter, pro­tec­tor, and sav­ior—one who loves us.

131:4.6“The spirit of the Uni­verse Keeper en­ters the soul of the sim­ple crea­ture. That man is wise who wor­ships the One God. Those who strive for per­fec­tion must in­deed know the Lord Su­preme. He never fears who knows the bliss­ful se­cu­rity of the Su­preme, for the Su­preme says to those who serve him, ‘Fear not, for I am with you.’ The God of prov­i­dence is our Fa­ther. God is truth. And it is the de­sire of God that his crea­tures should un­der­stand him—come fully to know the truth. Truth is eter­nal; it sus­tains the uni­verse. Our su­preme de­sire shall be union with the Su­preme. The Great Con­trol­ler is the gen­er­a­tor of all things—all evolves from him. And this is the sum of duty: Let no man do to an­other what would be re­pug­nant to him­self; cher­ish no mal­ice, smite not him who smites you, con­quer anger with mercy, and van­quish hate by benev­o­lence. And all this we should do be­cause God is a kind friend and a gra­cious fa­ther who re­mits all our earthly of­fenses.

131:4.7“God is our Fa­ther, the earth our mother, and the uni­verse our birth­place. With­out God the soul is a pris­oner; to know God re­leases the soul. By med­i­ta­tion on God, by union with him, there comes de­liv­er­ance from the il­lu­sions of evil and ul­ti­mate sal­va­tion from all ma­te­rial fet­ters. When man shall roll up space as a piece of leather, then will come the end of evil be­cause man has found God. O God, save us from the three­fold ruin of hell—lust, wrath, and avarice! O soul, gird your­self for the spirit strug­gle of im­mor­tal­ity! When the end of mor­tal life comes, hes­i­tate not to for­sake this body for a more fit and beau­ti­ful form and to awake in the realms of the Su­preme and Im­mor­tal, where there is no fear, sor­row, hunger, thirst, or death. To know God is to cut the cords of death. The God-know­ing soul rises in the uni­verse like the cream ap­pears on top of the milk. We wor­ship God, the all-worker, the Great Soul, who is ever seated in the heart of his crea­tures. And they who know that God is en­throned in the hu­man heart are des­tined to be­come like him—im­mor­tal. Evil must be left be­hind in this world, but virtue fol­lows the soul to heaven.

131:4.8“It is only the wicked who say: The uni­verse has nei­ther truth nor a ruler; it was only de­signed for our lusts. Such souls are de­luded by the small­ness of their in­tel­lects. They thus aban­don them­selves to the en­joy­ment of their lusts and de­prive their souls of the joys of virtue and the plea­sures of righ­teous­ness. What can be greater than to ex­pe­ri­ence sal­va­tion from sin? The man who has seen the Su­preme is im­mor­tal. Man’s friends of the flesh can­not sur­vive death; virtue alone walks by man’s side as he jour­neys ever on­ward to­ward the glad­some and sun­lit fields of Par­a­dise.”