The World’s Religions

131:9.1Even the least God-rec­og­niz­ing of the world’s great re­li­gions ac­knowl­edged the mono­the­ism of the Mel­chiz­e­dek mis­sion­ar­ies and their per­sis­tent suc­ces­sors. Ga­nid’s sum­mary of Con­fu­cian­ism was:

131:9.2“What Heaven ap­points is with­out er­ror. Truth is real and di­vine. Ev­ery­thing orig­i­nates in Heaven, and the Great Heaven makes no mis­takes. Heaven has ap­pointed many sub­or­di­nates to as­sist in the in­struc­tion and up­lift­ing of the in­fe­rior crea­tures. Great, very great, is the One God who rules man from on high. God is ma­jes­tic in power and aw­ful in judg­ment. But this Great God has con­ferred a moral sense even on many in­fe­rior peo­ple. Heaven’s bounty never stops. Benev­o­lence is Heaven’s choic­est gift to men. Heaven has be­stowed its no­bil­ity upon the soul of man; the virtues of man are the fruit of this en­dow­ment of Heaven’s no­bil­ity. The Great Heaven is all-dis­cern­ing and goes with man in all his do­ings. And we do well when we call the Great Heaven our Fa­ther and our Mother. If we are thus ser­vants of our di­vine an­ces­tors, then may we in con­fi­dence pray to Heaven. At all times and in ev­ery­thing let us stand in awe of the majesty of Heaven. We ac­knowl­edge, O God, the Most High and sov­er­eign Po­ten­tate, that judg­ment rests with you, and that all mercy pro­ceeds from the di­vine heart.

131:9.3“God is with us; there­fore we have no fear in our hearts. If there be found any virtue in me, it is the man­i­fes­ta­tion of Heaven who abides with me. But this Heaven within me of­ten makes hard de­mands on my faith. If God is with me, I have de­ter­mined to have no doubt in my heart. Faith must be very near the truth of things, and I do not see how a man can live with­out this good faith. Good and evil do not be­fall men with­out cause. Heaven deals with man’s soul in ac­cor­dance with its pur­pose. When you find your­self in the wrong, do not hes­i­tate to con­fess your er­ror and be quick to make amends.

131:9.4“A wise man is oc­cu­pied with the search for truth, not in seek­ing for a mere liv­ing. To at­tain the per­fec­tion of Heaven is the goal of man. The su­pe­rior man is given to self-ad­just­ment, and he is free from anx­i­ety and fear. God is with you; have no doubt in your heart. Ev­ery good deed has its rec­om­pense. The su­pe­rior man mur­murs not against Heaven nor holds a grudge against men. What you do not like when done to your­self, do not to oth­ers. Let com­pas­sion be a part of all pun­ish­ment; in ev­ery way en­deavor to make pun­ish­ment a bless­ing. Such is the way of Great Heaven. While all crea­tures must die and re­turn to the earth, the spirit of the no­ble man goes forth to be dis­played on high and to as­cend to the glo­ri­ous light of fi­nal bright­ness.”