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REMARKS TO THE BROTHERHOOD CONFERENCE
George Williams College
By E. L. Christensen
August 13-18, 1978

Greetings to the Soldiers of the Circles! This designation has been applied to us because we are the men and women who have been called to take the first steps in offering a new light to a frustrated church and a distracted world. We are the first light in nearly 2,000 years to illuminate the path of deliverance from the chaos, confusion and darkness of the present planetary dilemma.

But we are not soldiers bearing arms. We bear the good news of man's sonship with God--our Heavenly Father. We are entrusted with a great and unique responsibility--the custody, safeguarding, and dissemination of The Urantia Book. The carrying out of this responsibility will require of all those who would take it up: self-discipline, dedication and extraordinary efforts at cooperation. So may we all be valiant Soldiers of the Circles, wholeheartedly enlisted in the ranks of those mortals who shall go forward in the battle for truth against error under the unfaltering leadership of the mighty seraphic corps.

Said Jesus, "My bestowal should help all men to know that they are the children of God but such knowledge will not suffice if they fail personally to faith-grasp the saving truth that they are the living spirit sons of the Eternal Father. The gospel of the kingdom is concerned with the love of the Father and the service of his children on earth." "I have lived my life in the flesh to show how you can, through loving service, become God-revealing to your fellow men even as, by loving you and serving you, I have become God-revealing to you."

Never has such exhilarating news been revealed on this planet as that given us in The Urantia Book. But in our joy of knowing this revelation we must be alert that we do not repeat the mistake of the Apostles, who in the supreme ecstasy occasioned by the coming of the Spirit of Truth, proclaimed the fact of Jesus' resurrection and life after death for all, in the place of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man.

We must not substitute a lesser role for the great one that has been given to us. Our purpose is to bring people closer to God. We must not slip into the error of believing that our sole and meager task is to sell books. Of course, we want to dispense books but that will take care of itself if we preach the message of sonship with God.

"If The Urantia Book becomes mandatory in our ministry, then we have truly subordinated it to our first and primary objective and purpose, which is the service of God."

We are to go forth preaching the love of God and the service of man. That which the world needs most to know is: Men are the sons of God, and through faith they can actually realize, and daily experience, this ennobling truth.

We who have dedicated our lives to the service of the Urantia Revelation can little realize the import of our doing. We are just beginning the great work and we, who are the seed-sowers of today, may live and die without fully realizing the potentials of our participation in this dawning of a new age of religion on our planet. We are pioneers in a new planetary adventure. We have a solemn obligation.

Love is the great, infectious power by which the transformation will take place. The love of God and the love of man are the simple truths which will guide the new religious era, the great motivators which will enable us to do our task. The consciousness of sonship with God quickens the entire life service of every man, woman, and child who becomes the possessor of such a mighty stimulus to all the inherent powers of a human personality. Love is infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. If each mortal could only become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus of love would soon pervade the sentimental emotion-stream of humanity to such an extent that all civilization would be encompassed by love, and that would be the realization of the brotherhood of man.

Our planetary history is filled with great individuals of past eras, men and women who have acted rightly, courageously, and joyously in accordance with our Father's will. And these individuals, known and unknown to the pages of planetary history, are the leaders who have accounted for the mortal part of what progress has been made. Every person here today could similarly aspire to mobilize his or her personality potential to the service of our Father in heaven and to the satisfaction of his Creator Son in the many tasks we have at hand.

Please remember that:

Good humor and the smile of happiness are among the greatest assets of religious propagation.



A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship