The Church tries to fit Christ into it, not the Church into Christ.
The Trinitarian Christ is elevated above us; the Unitarian Christ is merely a moral man; neither can help us. The Christ who is the Incarnation of God, who has not forgotten His divinity, that Christ can help us, in Him there is no imperfection.
Christ said, “Resist not evil”, and we do not understand it until we discover that it is not only moral but actually the best policy, for anger is loss of energy to the man who displays it. You should not allow your minds to come into those brain-combinations of anger and hatred.
The kingdom of heaven is within us. The Jewish idea was a kingdom of heaven upon this earth. That was not the idea of Jesus.
Until we give up the world manufactured by the ego, never can we enter the kingdom of heaven. None ever did, none ever will.
Renunciation means that none can serve both God and Mammon.
The way to God is the opposite to that of the world. And to few, very few, are given to have God and mammon at the same time.
He alone is worshiping God who serves all beings.
From the high spiritual flights of the Vedanta philosophy, of which the latest discoveries of science seem like echoes, to the low ideas of idolatry with its multifarious mythology, the agnosticism of the Buddhists and the atheism of the Jains, each and all have a place in the Hinduism religion.
The history of the world is the history of a few men who had faith in themselves.
An atheist can be charitable but not religious. But the religious man must be charitable.
Charity never faileth.
Charity opens the heart.
Have charity towards all beings. Pity those who are in distress. Love all creatures. Do not be jealous of anyone. Look not to the faults of others.
Love and charity for the whole human race, that is the test of true religiousness.
Mark, therefore, the ordinary theory of practical religion, what it leads to. Charity is great, but the moment you say it is all, you run the risk of running into materialism. It is not religion. It is no better than atheism – a little less.
Religion has become to many merely a means of doing a little charity work, just to amuse them after a hard day’s labour – they get five minutes religion to amuse them. This is the danger with the liberal thought.
Seek no praise, no reward, for anything you do. No sooner do we perform a good action than we begin to desire credit for it. No sooner do we give money to some charity than we want to see our names blazoned in the papers. Misery must come as the result of such desires.
Test everything, try everything, and then believe it, and if you find it for the good of many, give it to all.
The guiding motive of mankind should be charity towards men, charity towards all animals.