The Person Of Central Value Reverend Sun Myung Moon
Barrytown, New York
August 16,1974
Master Speaks
Translated by Mrs. Won Pok Choi
This is an historical moment that we have waited for. All the members who have worked so hard in the regions are now gathered here in one place. About a year ago, you all gathered in Washington, D.C., and this is the first time since then. I hope and I believe that all anxieties and uneasiness have vanished away-the uneasiness and uncertainty you felt when you left your own countries a year and half ago.
I believe you have learned and experienced a lot since you left your nations. Some of you-I am afraid the majority of you-at first thought that it would be so difficult to work in this strange nation, and that you could have established more records in your own country. Didn't you feel that way at first? (No.) By saying no, you mean to please me, I think.
Whenever I think that I have driven you out on that kind of path, I sometimes feel that many people have been complaining against me behind my back. Isn't that true? Then I was wrong; I apologize. I am pleased to think that I was wrong. While experiencing so many things in your work here, the most important thing you have learned, I hope, is that this nation is the melting pot of all nations mingled together; so this is the place you can work for the divine mission.
There are so many other nations in this world, but it is almost strange that in this nation where people are transcending national boundaries, even though you may make quite a stir and you are almost turning the nation upside down, nobody objects against you, and no serious problems have so far happened. Could it have happened in Germany? (No.) If I placed you in France, what would have happened? If your stage was Italy, what can you imagine there? Can we stage you in England, in that sense? What about Japan -can you do the same? It sounds almost impossible elsewhere.
So I feel a kind of a sensational joy to have found a stage on the American continent to work; and I am proud of having brought you here for the work. I feel very brilliant for having brought the project here. You are responsible for the guidance of this nation, so you have been trained for that. By this time, you have the leadership, I hope, and you are continually going to be trained for that goal. You have been contacting many high-level people, many VIP's, and in doing that, you have trained yourself. You are now confident, I hope, to handle those people. Without your knowing, the leadership is solidly founded in yourselves.
On the worldwide base we have to lay the foundation and tradition of the Unification movement. So for the start, we have trained ourselves well in the United States. You know the blessing of the great training, you have had so far. That is, if you look at the members from France, you don't feel that they are Frenchmen, but you feel only that they are Unification members; and if you look at the Italians, you will say the same. They are not Italians, but Unification members. Isn't it so? You have done what the United Nations failed to do. If there is God at all, He must be proud of you, because in Him there is no national boundary.
God loves each one of you in that sense, and those whom God loves are all gathered here in this auditorium. This place is the focus of God's attention. Then what would you expect from God? God will concentrate on helping you, so these few days are going to be days of inspiration and renewed dedication. I have decided to have you go through training for five days, until the 22nd, without immediately going into the city of New York to work.
When you left your places, you didn't dream of having training. You fancied that upon your arrival here you would immediately go out into the city of New York and work hard, perspiring and shouting at the top of your voices. Up to this date you have been working on separate bases, so in order to get you unified, I have to mingle you together to learn from each other and go through the training from a different source. Do you feel the blessedness of having to go through the training here?
What is training after all? We are going through training in preparation for the days of campaigning to come, to study how to do the job. More than anything else, I have to train you under the Divine Principle, because although I know that your own commanders have been teaching you the Divine Principle, there could be a margin of difference. So I have to have all of you going through the same training in the same place. I am anxious to see the outcome and how much more advanced you will be after going through the session here. That means in order for me to know the outcome after five days of training, I will have you go through an examination. Your applause this time is not strong enough. Why is it so? Nobody likes examinations, I know. But you realize that the examination is necessary.
After training, each team will get an average grade, and there will be a citation for those who win the top level. The responsibilities of the commanders this time is to encourage you to study harder than other groups. Your responsibility is to study hard, while theirs is to encourage you to study hard. Then all the commanders will study hard on how to make you sleep less and work harder than other team members. Then you must say, "Oh, my commander has been pushing us so hard in the field! Now we are back here and he is pushing us hard. What is the matter with him?" You must not complain against him, because he is only anxious to have you win over others. Struggling, fighting -those things alone can make us attain the victory.
When you walk along the street, there are people who are just strolling and those who are making big strides or strutting on the way. We can see differences between those people. Every nation wants strong leadership. As leaders, you must not only be strong, but generous, kind, and capable. But when we are in the stage of construction or beginning, what we need is strong, dynamic leaders. So it may be a pity to you, but after having brought you here to this great arena, I am thinking of how to push you hard so that you can be trained in the shortest possible time. Then it means you are going to go through difficulty and hardship. But what you do here will be long remembered and recorded in your history and in the history of your own nation, because you are going to be leaders in your own nations when you go back there. Would you want to have nature just plain and monotonous, or would you prefer to have it have rises and a variety of contours? (Variety.) If you choose it to be monotonous, your songs will be just ah-ah-ah-ah. Would you like that kind of song?
When you are on the playground, too, you shouldn't prefer to just sit still and watch other people, but you must become champions in wrestling and fighting against the other team. So without complaining, you must feel challenge and excitement whenever you are pushed hard. Can you promise me? Then you promised not to complain against me, against your commander, or against your project here. So I am well pleased with you. Don't ever expect to be fed well, either. You may have expected to be fed with rich food here. I will feed you with meager food, because if I gave you rich food, your mind would be concentrated on the examination and you could not digest it well.
Well, let's go into the mainstream of my talk today, the title of which is "Central Value." There are many members gathered here, young and old, male and female. There is none, I think, who does not think he or she wants to become the central figure of the whole group. Just as in the case of the individual, any group may have to think the same way, to become the central group of all the rest of the groups. For a nation, too, the same thing applies. A certain nation must think that she wants to become the top-level nation of all the rest of the nations. Even evil people think the same way, and they want to become central figures. Even those committing crimes have reasons. They say, "The situation demands that I do this, but a little later I will work for the benefit of mankind. " If you don't agree, I have a story to tell you.
When I was in prison I lived in the same cell with other criminals, including murderers. I would ask them, "Why did you commit that kind of horrible crime?" and they would say, "I did nothing wrong. The evil society made me do that. " Everybody thought he was right in doing that. He may have killed a certain person, thinking, "If I were in his position...... Or if he committed a crime against the political leaders, he would say, "If I were in his position, I would have done this and that far better than he did."
The same thing applies to you, and you have reasons for doing good and bad things. Even children have reasons for what they do. When we scold them, they protest saying that they did it because of this and that, and they are strong in their protest. That is a human trait, coming from the notion that we are the right person and we are going to be the central person.
We cannot deny that there are two groups of people, roughly divided-those who are good and those who are bad. Then what are the differences between good and evil? We must make a clear distinction between these two. That which is good must be proven good by the past welcomed by the present, and assumed to be welcomed by the future generations. It must be welcomed by both young and old, male and female, high and low. Even evil people praise the good deed. Then you can safely define that you are doing good things. It means that by what you are doing, you gain friends, not enemies.
Then what is evil? What is badness? Contrary to what good is, evil cannot be welcomed by the past. Anyone at the present stage will shake heads against evil that is done, and we can well assume that the future generations too will never welcome that kind of deed. Both young and old, male and female, high or low will be horrified by what is done and will dislike it. That evil person does things for himself alone, and he confines himself to a small cell without having anything to do with the outside world. That is what evil is. And more than anything else, our conscience would not take delight in doing that kind of thing.
In other words, we can define evil as narrowing the scope of your being. You will drive yourself into solitude, and people will dislike you and hate you and won't want to be associated with you. So you are imprisoning yourself. Then our view of goodness and evil is that goodness comes into fruition when you do things for the sake of other people and as a result are welcomed by those people. On the contrary, when you do bad things, you are doing them for your own sake and you will be disliked and hated by other people. That's the dividing point between good and evil.
Then who is the most evil person? If you are doing things entirely for yourselves, without minding other people's benefit or goodness, then you can say that you are doing evil things. There is no concession, no forgiveness, no love there. That's the person who is the most evil. Can you understand?
Then what would be an evil family? If you think of your family alone, without thinking of the benefit of other families or other people, then your family is a bad one. You have seen so many families in the secular society who work only for their own benefit most of the time. And we can say that those have been bad families. They don't think of their neighbors, they don't think of their society, but they work only for the benefit of themselves.
Then when those families make a nation, they naturally make a bad one. The leader of the nation, including all the citizens, think of their own nation first and only. And they want to conquer other nations and drive them to their knees to obey their nation. Then can you comprehend what kind of a nation it must be? An evil nation. Hitler is a good example. The Germans wanted to conquer all other races and have the hegemony over other races and put others on their knees before them. Hitler was the kind of person we call a tyrant, a dictator.
Then what are good ideologies and bad ones? Communism for one says, "We must deny and conquer other ideologies. We cannot admit others." If anyone denies Communism he can be readily beheaded. Ideologically, the Communists are dictators. Since they are bad, they will not last long. When we closely study what is happening in the United States, we see that individualism prevails here. That is close to evil. It is a cousin to evil, although, not evil itself. There is no family here, no neighbor, no nation, but just more stress on the individual. Then that is animal instinct, and in some cases worse than Communism.
The Communists at least think of bringing the world under their ideology, but these individualists think of themselves alone.
If there is God and He is going to punish what is evil, He will punish the individualists after having punished Communists, the God-denying people. So we can draw the conclusion that if people of the United States go on like this, then they will be faced with peril. We have to do something with democracy here. Without our work here, there will be no way for the United States to survive.
Then to which category do you belong-the good side or bad side? (Good.) What makes you say that? [One voice: "You. " ] If you answer that way on the examination sheet, you will get no points. You must say, "Because we are on the extreme opposite side to evil, the absolutely contrary side. We are good. "
As I have said before, if you work not for yourself but for the sake of other people, and if you are acknowledged by the past generation, and working for the present generation and willing to work for the future generation, then you can define yourselves to be good. We have a clear notion in everything we say. We know that the people of the Jewish religion were wrong in the past. And we know how to become better than they. We believe our doctrine excels theirs, and in practicing that, we will right the wrong. We have come through the mess and have gone through the operation to cure sick Christianity; now we are going to heal the wounds. We are going to analyze and criticize what is wrong with Communism and even criticize democracy and set a lasting ideology for mankind.
Without doubt, through our group a worldwide doctrine or philosophy will be established that excels any of those in the past, present, or future. Then ours, instead of being criticized will be welcomed by the people of the past, of the present, and of the future. In that sense, we can define our group as being good. Is it right? Then you must test yourselves and prove it. If you cannot do it yourself, I will test you. Can you survive it? You must have courage.
You can call to the past saints and sages and say, "Come and wrestle with me." Yes, you must be confident to win over them. In the degree of goodness you will surpass them. Are you sure you can do that? It's simple to answer in the affirmative, but it may not be as easy as it sounds. Not only in competing with people of the past, but also in competing with the great leaders of the present age, you must excel. You must be able to tell them to follow your example, but you cannot force them.
Many people have fallen away from the movement, but after a while they have to come back. When they come back they have no face to lift up. Are you strong enough to influence other people who fell away to come back to you? No other power in the whole world, however strong it may be, can pull you away. And if you are pulled to their side, you will come back. If you are pulled a second time, three times, four times, you will come back five times. If you are going to be pulled on their side a hundred times, you will come back a hundred and one times. If you are pulled to their side a thousand times, you will come back a thousand and one times. Are you already that way, or are you going to be that way? I admire you.
Well, in that case you must be confident that you have the seal from heaven, the signature of God, the signature of the True Parents, and the signature of every other member; the passed-away saints and sages must recognize you. Did you receive that? If you have not been able to receive the signature of recognition from those people, you are far from being that. Then you will say, "We are going to be someone like that. " For some it may take a year; for still others it may take several years, ten years, a hundred years, a lifetime. It is not going to be easy.
Without being those kinds of people, you cannot move the world. Unless you leave a standard of goodness which the later generations can and must follow, you cannot call yourselves really good. Are you confident of that? Have you thought that you would do that, even though it would take you a lifetime? Even though you may get as old as seventy or eighty or until the time of your death you will still be doing that without ceasing? And on the deathbed you must say, "I have done my best to be the example to the past generations, and I have done this and that for the good of the present age. What I have done will be exemplary to future generations. " Are you sure you can say that before dying?
It must not be just lip service. You must create the contents of your own history. If people around your deathbed know that you are telling a lie, they will say, "Go to hell. " If you are the other way around, people will cling to you and pray for you not to die and want you to be with them forever. They will just love you. Can you be that kind of person? (Yes.) In that case, you can well say that you are a good person, which is not easy.
The first thing you need in defining yourself to be good is unwavering faith in what you are doing and the accumulation of your good deeds. All the people of the world will like or love that kind of person. We have young men and women here-in the future days would you not choose a spouse who is as good as what we have defined? (Yes.) Then would you say you are -going to be happy couples?
Then just fancy that you are married to just such a good person. Then your family is going to be run not for the sake of your family alone, but for the sake of the whole nation or the whole world. For instance, after having been blessed in holy marriage in our family, Father will call one of a certain couple to America while the other is working elsewhere. Maybe one will be working in the North Arctic, while the other is working in the South Pole. Then if it is going to be done for the benefit of mankind, you must welcome that. That's our way of living. You said yes, but I want you to hold up your hands if you really welcome that idea. You are doing that reluctantly. (No.)
Suppose one couple have lived separately for ten years, and another couple for thirty years. Which couple would you think is better? (The second.) You know well. Well, that's your standard of measuring goodness. If you are ignorant of the definition, it would be horrible. But since you know the definition, you can shorten the period. In the secular world, people think of themselves alone, all being individualists. That's just animal instinct, nothing else. So you must know that what is good does not belong to this generation alone. It belongs to other generations, too; and it is something that occurs when we work for the past, for the present, and for the future.
I am not a foolish person to do this, but I have thought and thought, prayed and prayed to create the Unification group. People may think I am unwise to have chosen such a difficult way. And what I have chosen is the most difficult way in the whole world. But have I done this for myself? (No.) What I want is for you to do something which we can leave for the past generation, present generation, and future generation. Since other people do not understand us, we are a lonely group of people. In our solitude we are doing things that other people don't understand. But as time goes by, people will know and understand what it means. They will say in the future days that what Reverend Moon has been teaching is right.
The same thing is true with the Watergate issue. Even President Nixon did not know what was coming in the future in God's plan. He will realize some day in the future that what I told him to do was right. As I have continuously mentioned, I am not pro-Nixon but pro-God, and he was in God's plan. That's why I was backing him. I knew he was wrong in many ways, but God is choosing someone better than the other. American leadership must be solid because America is in danger, but still America in God's sight is at least better than other nations, more for the good.
Why am I working in this nation, having brought so many young people from other nations? It is because while we work in this nation for this nation, we are working equally for other nations and for the whole of mankind. We believe that. There are good people, bad people; good families, bad families; good nations, bad nations; when we can analyze and criticize those things, we can see a clear difference between what is good and evil. What we are doing is headed for the clear goal under God's divine will. There is no further room for definition of what is good and evil.
The religion under Unification ideology must become the history-making one. Would you want that? Then even though we have a strong ideology, if we don't put it into practice, what will become of us? Would you put it into practice? Then from whom does it start? From where would it start? From every one of you. You cannot rely too much on God, or too much on someone else, but you must do it starting from yourself, In that sense, you can place yourself in the central position. By your applying that rule, putting everything in the ideology into practice, then you can really be happy, and you will feel the challenge and blessedness of what you are doing. Do you really understand what I mean?
Then let us analyze our development stage by stage. For the first stage, we must cultivate ourselves to become the central figure of ultimate value, and we must create our family on the base. If you have sacrificed yourself and are still sacrificing yourselves for the sake of the family, you are naturally placed in the central position. It is human nature that you like to have someone sacrifice his total life for your sake, being the leader for you and for your group.
There are many things that cause changes, but this is the ultimate truth and truth never changes. It is only too natural for someone to become the central figure in the family with others as his satellites or followers when he does things solely for the sake of the family, not for himself. If all the family members follow the example of the central figure, and the family as a whole plays the role of the central family, then this family can influence other families, including neighbors and relatives. That family will be the central family of its clan and tribe. I am sure you will not object to that.
If that kind of clan, tribe, or nation is multiplied, those nations can influence other nations until it brings the whole of mankind to goodness. It is only too natural for such a nation to influence the whole world and win the favor of mankind. It is because when you work for things of a broader scope, you can play the role of the central figure in that category.
Then for what does the Unification Church exist? We are in the age in which religions must take the leadership of the nation or people, and the world. First of all, our view is that the Unification Church should work for the nation and then the whole world. For instance, there are many religions in America, but if our movement works more for this nation and sacrifices itself for the benefit of this nation, that way we do more than any other religion. Then we can be the central religion of all other religions and of all other groups. That's what makes us different from others. We see a clear difference between our group and other groups. Most other groups work for the expansion of their own church or their own religious group, but in our group we work for the benefit of other people; in doing that we win members.
What have you been doing up to the present? We have not worked for the Unification Church; we have worked for the United States, for the people of the United States. We have worked for the democratic world. We have been working for the whole world so there will be no threat of Communism. As it now stands, we are in a losing game, always giving out things.
But what will come next? Behind the scenes there will be people who instead of complaining and calling us names, will praise us and admire us. When you visit people, they will just hate to see you leave them, wanting to work with you and use you in their own group. Most of the people in this nation would like to have you work longer in this nation, without leaving it, but working hard for it. That means they know that we are working not for the benefit of our own group, but for the sake of the whole nation. Then are we unhappy people, or happy people? We know what makes us happy. Why are you happy people?
Every moment we are seemingly losing things; we are not properly fed; we are not sleeping in comfortable beds; we cannot idle away our time in enjoying life. What makes us happy people? On the external base, in secular eyes, we are seemingly losing things; but on the spiritual level, we are gaining much. You must know that. What are we gaining on the invisible level? We will inherit what our predecessors have gained. Then what we are doing now will be fruitful, and will be admired in the future.
At the present stage, we don't belong only to a small group; rather, what belongs to the whole world will be ours. Things of a higher dimension will be associated with us, and the spiritual world is mobilized to help us out on that level. What makes our group different is that other groups in the world look for things belonging to the present, but we look for things involving the past and future, in addition to the present. The more you sacrifice yourselves, the more solid your stand as the central figure becomes. Without knowing it, you will change. The leadership will be recognized by God in that way.
This kind of group will develop into a wider and still wider scope, from things on the individual level to that on the family level, national level, and worldwide level. Every moment we are solemnly inheriting the central value of our predecessors, conveying the baton to our successors. In the short period of three years or less, I have become known to the American people. If, meanwhile, I have done those things for my own sake, making riches and putting them into my pocket to go back to my nation, my name will be defined as evil. But because I am doing this for this nation and its people, then the people will know well that I am doing this for the good of the nation, and they will remember my name. So far, have you worked for your own sake, or for this nation and its people and the world? (Nation.) Are you sure of that? If that is true you are already great people and you will remain great.
In the United States, if people in general hate to do things, perspiring all over, and you would choose to do those things, then what you will do will be greater than what they do. Since you are doing those things for the nation of America and for its people, the days will come when they will come to their knees before you in admiration. History will never die. History resurrects every moment. Every moment we live and everything we do will remain recorded in the history of America.
We are not at present too conspicuous on the pages of American history, but what we are sowing now will grow, and at least be harvested by the future generations, if not by our own hands. What we have sown will sprout and grow to be a big tree and bear fruit. People will know what our group means by our fruit. But those who already know the greatness of the tree will just water the tree and cultivate the tree, waiting anxiously for it to grow fast, instead of hindering it.
You are not very well dressed. The female members want to have cosmetics and manicures, to look nicer. But instead, you are all suntanned and you are working very hard, perspiring all over. Sometimes you look pale-even undernourished. But people will admire you because they know that what you are doing is for the nation and not for yourselves. For this kind of person there is no fear whatever. We are living by the law of the Constitution and the divine law, so there is nothing for us to fear in the whole world. We are not afraid of any individual. We are not afraid of the nation of America. We are not afraid of the FBI or the CIA. We are not even afraid of God. We are not afraid of hell.
Those who are not afraid of anything are the strongest persons in the whole world. We are not afraid of God or hell; instead, God will be afraid of us, and hell will be afraid of us, and people will be afraid of us. Then are you not proud of yourselves? Without being equipped with all those things, you cannot be responsible for the salvation of the whole world. If we personify the whole world, the world will want to have you as the leader. We must be proud of ourselves and be confident.
Even in human society, that kind of leadership is needed. Even though we may not be able to leave anything else, we must leave this to other generations as our doctrine or discipline. We may not be able to revive or revitalize the Christian world, making it resurrect into the divine will; but if we leave this ideology, people in later generations will take up the job and God's will will be realized. Now we see the clear picture of what we are doing and what we are going to do.
The past generations, the present generation, and the future generations will want that kind of leadership. That's what we know. I don't have to repeat that to you; even you would want that kind of person as your leader, placing him in the central position. Then those who have passed away, including your ancestors, will help you out and just pray for your victory during your life on earth. Would they not do that? It does not remain just logic, but it is true that myriads of saints and sages, including your ancestors, are praying for you and helping you in every way possible. All the good and righteous people on the earth are even unconsciously helping you, longing for your victory. It is because you are working for the sake of all. Those who are not conscious of, or who are ignorant of what we are doing, will later know that what we have done is for their sake, and they will admire us and pray for us. Our descendants will fear us, and look at us for an example to follow.
God would want a person resembling Him. That means a person who is loved and welcomed by the people of the past, people of the present, and by the people of future generations. This is the kind of person who does things for others, not for himself.
God is just like us and we are like God. He would like what people would like. He would like the person whom people would like. He is just the same as we are. He wants religious people to become that kind of people. He would not expect to find such persons anywhere other than in the religious world. This is because religious people must think of things in terms of God and His plan. So religious people are closer to God.
Then which religion of all other religions would do the job? If a religion wants to meet the standard of goodness which we have just defined, then the people under that religion are the closest to God. Where is that kind of religion? (Here.) But what about other people? That's why we must work hard and make other people recognize and accept us. We must prove it with our own deeds. People will compare our group with others. God does the same. God compares our church, our religion with other religions, by the way people of other religions do things, He will assess their religion. If there is a vast difference between those religions and ours and we excel the other religions by far, then alone can God say our religion is the best. God can compare not only the religions of the present age, but also the many religions in the past. After comparing all those things, if He finds our religion excels all others, then alone can God really praise us and call us good.
If I were in God's position, I would be anxious to meet that kind of group. God is not a God of favoritism. He would not say, "I would want a German group to have that kind of religion," or "I would want a French group to have that kind of religion, " or any other special group. There is no racial or national boundary in God's concept. He would look for a group which has gone through much difficulties and survived, one which is conspicuous in human scenes, and one which has done deeds for the good of the world.
Suppose we meet one person who has gone through all those things and survived and set the standard. What will God do if He found this kind of person? If he perfected himself on the individual level, but failed at the stage of making his family perfect under God's will, what would God do? Would God want that to happen? He would want his family to be the standard family, the perfect family; one which is exemplary to other families. He would have a nation with such families to be the standard nation and be exemplary to other nations of the world.
Suppose God had already found such a family. What would He do then'? God's intention and hope is to save the nation and the world; and if this kind of family could play the role of the central family in the whole nation, would God want to have this family do the job, or would He rather choose another family? (This family.) If any individual is really as perfect as God is, and if he plays the role of central figure in his family, his family is sure to play the central role to all other families. In this way he can widen his scope to reach out to the end of the world.
If he is only capable of making a nation under God's will, would God like that, or would God rather have this man enlighten and save the world, continually playing the role of the central figure of the whole world? Would God want him to save the whole world, or the rest of the cosmos? If the tradition he has laid is perfectly God-centered, the tradition will expand in scope until it includes the whole cosmos.
For the President of your nation, would you want to have just a policy-maker, running the nation for the time being, or would you want him to be an historical President? Would you not want to have his family be the model family, and he as an individual be as perfect as possible? Which President do you want, a prepared one or an unprepared one? Since God's goal is the whole of mankind, we are sure that He wants to find one who is perfect as an individual, whose family is perfect, and who is capable of making His nation perfect, and the whole world and the whole cosmos, including the spirit world, perfect? Wouldn't that be true?
That one man must be able to play the central role through all the levels-individual, family, tribe, nation, world, and cosmos. Until God meets that kind of person, He cannot be reassured; He cannot really say, "It is good, or he is good. " God being absolute, wants that person to be as perfect as Himself. In His providence of restoration, or providence of salvation, God has been seeking for one person like that to have him save the whole world in His place. Until the day He finds such a person, He cannot rest. Has He found such a person? Are you sure you can become as perfect as He is Himself? We can call this kind of person an ideal person, or a perfect person. Now that you know this, can you sell this person in exchange for the whole country of America? (No.) You cannot buy this person at the cost of the whole world. You may be able to buy this person at the cost of the whole world plus God.
You have every right to say, "I am such a person," but what comes next is how to prove it. By your deeds alone can you prove it. Then how wonderful it must be if you all can prove that! God wants people of that personality.
Let us examine whether or not God does things that way. Without the human fall, what would Adam and Eve have been like? In that case, Adam and Eve would have set up the absolute tradition of God's choice. Then they would have become as perfect as God, as His son and daughter. They would have formed an ideal family according to God's will. Then they and their family would have become the central family of all other families, playing the role of the chief of the tribe. Then after establishing the nation or kingdom, Adam would have been the king of the nation. That's what we mean when we call the Messiah the King of kings. Had it not been for the human fall, our first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, could have become the chief of the family, clan, nation, and the whole world, reigning over the world under God's will: This would have been the Kingdom of God on earth. All levels of things reaching to the world and the cosmos would be connected through that one man of central value. In that case, Adam would have lived not for himself, but for his family, clan, nation, and the whole world. There is no doubt about that. We can call this the ideal world.
Due to the human fall, the things contrary to what God would have us do, came into existence. But in the course of restoration, God has striven hard to re-create a person, or to find and cultivate or raise such a person to be a perfect one. Then failure came, and that search has been continued downward and downward through all human history. God would want to find a family like that, a tribe or a nation like that, and until the salvation of the whole world He will repeat the same thing. However hard your struggles to do good things may be, they only add up to a drop of water in the ocean of salvation or goodness. However hard you may struggle, what you will accumulate is only a tiny bit. The particles you have accumulated are nothing unless you find the Messiah, who will assemble all the particles into a whole. Through the personage of the Messiah, the whole family, nation, and whole world will be saved. He will play the role of the instrument of God's will, and God will directly work through him and with him. Can you understand?
What you have to do is just to cling to him and be a part of him. When he is a perfect man you will be a part of him; when he has a perfect family, you will be a part of his family; when he has erected a perfect nation under him, you will be a part of his nation; and when he has erected the whole world under God's will, you will be a part of the whole. For a fallen man, that is the ultimate wish, or should be the ultimate wish. You want to see such a thing be done by that kind of person in your lifetime. If your wish is to see that kind of person, and get to really work with that kind of person, how much happier you would be. You must be confident to play the role of central figure and the person of central value in place of, or even without the Messiah, after learning from him.
But the fact is that however hard you may struggle, you cannot win the goal without the help of the Messiah. It is made possible only by working with him and by being helped by him. That's what we mean by our being engrafted to him. In proportion to the degree you are one with him, you can draw the more or less sap or life energy from him and survive after being engrafted. Then you will become a part of him and you will grow with him through the same trunk and root. You are his branches, and after growing wholesomely, you will bear fruit. Then would you want to be engrafted to him? To what degree do you want it? (The greatest.) It is easy to answer yes, but if you really want it, I want you to be the utmost patriot of your nation first.
But what comes first? Would you want America, your nation, first-more than you would your Lord, Christ? Would you love your family more than you do the Messiah? Then are you ready to love him more than your own life? That's why Jesus said you must love him more than anyone else in the whole world, and you must deny yourself. On another occasion he said, "Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. " This is so because when you want to be engrafted onto something you must cut yourself off and bring yourself to be engrafted onto the main tree. Cutting yourself off means to deny yourself, being ready to die. If the limb has its own will and just hates to be cut off, can it be engrafted to the main tree?
So the Unification members are here for what? To be cut off from the old tie and be engrafted onto the Messiah. That's why you left your family, your nation, and came here. Was it good that you have done it, or not? Then what would your nation say? What would your family say? What if your parents take me to be an enemy to them? They will call me a thief to have stolen their children. Then am I a thief? If someone is a thief, even the lifeless things that are being stolen will hate that person. Then would you as a person stolen by him hate him? (No.) Then I am not a thief.
Yes, you have left your nation, you have left your family, but what you do here must be greater than what you used to do before. Unless that is true, you cannot be called good. This you must be doing not only now, but in the future and all through eternity. You must never change; and you must be confident that what you are doing is right. Unless you are that way, you cannot say you are good. In that case, can you complain? You are here, and you came here willingly. And you dislike this Unification family which you once loved so much; then what is your destiny? If you want to leave, just go ahead and do that, and see if you can find any other group which is as dear to God as this group is. Your logic will say there is no other such group. What you have witnessed here will say that too, and you are destined to come back sooner or later.
If there is any such group other than this in the whole world, I would have left this group long ago in search of that one. I have so many high antennae reaching the spirit world, and I have reached and searched for any group or any doctrine higher than this; finally I settled here.
If asked such a question, everybody would say, "I want to be that kind of person. I want to be that kind of central figure. " And even though it is hard for them to become such a person, it is everybody's wish to become the central figure. Isn't that right? But when in the Unification Church there is already a person who has won the recognition by God, you have only to follow him. You must be proud that you are one of the Unification Church and a part of him. If you are sure of that, would you say you are a success or a failure? Then are we happy people, or unhappy people? How happy are we here? How long will you be happy? Forever-it is like forever.
You will live for this cause and die for this cause, and nothing you will do will be useless or valueless. If God would ask you, "Would you want to enjoy a long life?", your answer will no doubt be yes. But you must answer Him with this: "Yes, because I want to work for myself until I become perfect, and for my family until I make it perfect, and for my clan and nation and the whole world until I make it perfect and restored under your will. That's why I want to live long." And you will be endowed with longer life.
One of you will come to me and say, "I have a wish, Master, " and I will ask, "What is your wish?" You will say, "I want to do everything with you as the example, and I want to make myself happy, perfect my family and nation and the whole world in place of you. So you must push me harder and make me do that. " Then what would I do? Would you want to say that to me? What if I just wouldn't let you sleep and let you work 24 hours through without rest? What would you do? Would you tell me that you are going to do what is assigned to you? Would you say, I would rather have you do that in five years' time and enjoy the kingdom after five years? Then why do I urge you to do your part in five years, or three years instead of five, or five years instead of ten? Why? It is because I want you to live a happy life after having done all the tasks of establishing God's kingdom.
I want so badly to see you live and enjoy your life in the established kingdom of God. I don't want you to just work on and on all through your lifetime. Since I want you to live the life of happiness and ultimate goodness after having established the kingdom, that's why I urge you to do the things in the shortest possible time. This compels me to drive you harder. If I were in God's position, what would I have to do? God is even more anxious to have you finish the work, so He may want you to finish the work in one year, instead of three years,
We know what goodness means by now, and one thing we must remember is that while we delay our work, there are many people dying away, destined to hell every moment, without being saved. We must save the people. Compared to the vast population of the world, 3.6 billion, if one out of one hundred dies every day, then 36 million people are dying in one year. Then upon their physical death, if they are destined to hell, what would you do? In ten years' time, it means 300 million people are doomed to go to hell. Then you can well imagine how anxious God must be to save these people before their death.
In God's eyes, it is nothing to sacrifice several thousand people of the Unification Church for the salvation of the whole. Can you comprehend that? You must be willing to accept that. So there is no time to lose, no moment to lose. It is Master's thought and God's thought and the thought of the commanders here to shorten the period if possible. Instead of finishing the job in ten years, if possible we should shorten the period into five years or three years, or even one year.
Whenever I see you, and when you cry out in joy at seeing me, I cry and sob in my heart more than you do. I sometimes even feel guilty to have put you in difficulties. I would think, "Well, I have put them in such hardships and they still want to see me and are happy to see me; they are good people, and maybe in a sense better than myself." And in my mind I feel cross and cannot lift up my face. Then I renew my determination to at all costs erect the Kingdom on earth, not to rebel against it or betray you. If I fail at that moment, I would think I would nullify all you have done. So I have become so serious.
I would go out into the city of New York and see you people meeting the passersby and witnessing to them, and I would cry in my heart. I cannot lift up my face to look at you. At that moment I feel as though I am a sinner before you, and I would just keep dropping my head passing by. I would pray to God, "Oh, God, I would pass everything I have earned onto these people. " This comes in a flash, and when I am reassured that God would do that and bless you more than He has done me, then I become reassured and I lift up my face to look at you. For all these reasons, I can say that you are happy people.
Even though you are driven harshly on the way of difficulty, hardships, and persecutions, and all those things, your Master is remembering you and working with you at every moment of your hard work. I am confident that it is that kind of quality in me which makes you love me, instead of hating me. You can be sure that I am always ahead of you, working and paving the way to smooth it and make your work easier. Every moment of my life I am either in prayer or at work. That's what makes our tie strong and our group strong. No other power in the whole world will hinder our way, and we will establish the kingdom while on earth.
So however hard you may have to struggle, and how hard the persecution you may have to go through, I am sure you cannot hate me. God, too, instead of hating me, is always sympathetic with me. I know that. God is anxious to have me be successful and have our group be successful. You can believe that the moment when you are having more difficulties, God is more with you and working with you.
We are here this time for the campaign towards Madison Square Garden. We are awakened to the fact that we are in a serious position, where all the people of the world are looking at us, including the saints and sages of the past. The future generations will read about us. God is anxious to have us become a success instead of failure. All those things will decide whether or not we are going to be successful in the Madison Square Garden project. We now know that we are people of central value whose mission is to perfect ourselves and perfect our family, nation, and the whole world; and our ultimate purpose or goal is to liberate God from the bondage of grief and sorrow. How big and a wonderful thing it would be to liberate God from the bondage of sorrow!
In proportion to what we have gained and what we have done God will be liberated. So we must feel the authority of being a person of central value. Then God is relying on us at every moment, and we cannot be failures. We just simply cannot be failures in God's sight. Due to the human fall in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve could not use their five senses in the right way. We must see things as though God would see them. We must hear and say things as God would have us do. If you are really awakened to the fact that you are already the person of central value, what would you do? You must prove yourselves to be that before God. You must prove it to the world. You must prove it to me. Can you do that? It is a serious question.
Every moment of your life you must renew your dedication, saying, "I am willing to bear whatever cross that may come, and whatever persecution may come. " Then you will be strong enough to be able to bear the responsibility. You must put your whole efforts into becoming the central figure, not only for your own nation not only as a history-maker in the worldly sense-but you must become the person on whom God can rely to accomplish the mission He assigned. Are you confident of that? Then go ahead and do that.
What is the purpose of my having the campaign towards Madison Square Garden? This is my third year in the United States. I have the responsibility of breaking the record other people have already set in the history of America; not only that, but in every field of history of the whole world. My first public appearance was made in 1972, and before that year, I had not made any public appearance even in Korea.
I initiated my public appearance in the United States because this nation is the leading nation of the whole world. You can see that within the short period of time of less than three years, we have attained so much. When I was first going to talk at Lincoln Center, people almost scoffed at me. They thought that I would do that just once, and give up, never appearing again. The next year they found that Reverend Moon was going to speak in Carnegie Hall. They were sort of doubtful, saying, "Well, can these people fill up Carnegie Hall? Maybe half the hall will be filled." After that tour, which was kicked off at Carnegie Hall, I finished a 2 1 -city tour; then a 32-city tour including all states. People would imagine that without using vast amounts of money, these people could not do that.
So my plan is to make the whole world frightened or astonished by us. So far, our speaking tour was successful. There is an immigration problem still unsolved. After the successful completion of the tour, the immigration problem came to be more serious. Then, as you know, I shifted the fund-raising teams, and I am now using only American members for that. There are many members here from European nations and Japan, and I know you have struggled hard. Without your efforts here, the American movement could not have become so much elevated.
At the time of the latest Prayer and Fast I mobilized mostly American members-600 of them. I am now in the process of rearranging the situations to use mostly American members for important projects. How many American members do we have here? Sooner or later we will have to shift the mobile team members to Americans exclusively. As you know, this year is the final year of our second seven-year course, and then our third seven-year course will start from next year.
Our third seven-year course will be trodden on the worldwide level. We will go beyond the national level to the worldwide level. Then it means that our American members must play the central role. Because America is still in the leading position of the world, when American youth do things, the whole population of the world cannot but condone them. They cannot take it lightly. If we are going to mobilize ten international mobile team members to be shifted to other countries, we must lay the national foundation first.
Our focal point is to arouse the attention of the American people and have the nation of America back us up by recognizing us. If we are successful in the Madison Square Garden project, the whole nation of America cannot take us lightly. For our public relations aspect, we are using a company which is very successful in its line, and are spending almost 300,000 dollars for that. People know that in order to have that kind of vast project be successful, we should use even seven times as much money.
Billy Graham, too, at first had to use that much money; and he then aroused the attention of so many people so all the churches would mobilize their members to attend his speech. But in our church, Master is doing the job all by himself, without help coming from the established churches. But we have the strength of dedicated young people. If they are really thinkers, most people have been astonished by the fact that 600 young people were in the fast and prayer demonstration in front of Capitol Hill. They know that we are the strongest group in that sense, too.
If our Madison Square Garden project becomes a success, it will arouse the attention of all the people of the United States and the world. After the success, people will recognize that our group has a great number of young people. They know that we have a strong system working here. They will know that we have a vast amount of money. By using some 300,000 dollars we will do the work which other people cannot do even if they use three times as much money as that, or five times, or seven times as much money. And people cannot overlook it.
At first people will become scornful and say, "Oh, we will wait and see, but he will never be successful in filling up that vast auditorium." There are many big organizations in the city of New York, and most represent the whole world; they think that it is very probable that our project will be a failure. Then we will turn their notion upside down and they will be astounded.
Then ever after that, they will have to study our group. As it is already, many famous people who have already been contacted by us will be astonished again by what we do and will have to study us. In that case, would you at all costs make Madison Square Garden project a success? From our experience, last year we have studied that by selling tickets, only one fifth of the people came, even though they paid for it. So we prepared thirty times as many tickets as the capacity. Then how many tickets did we print? 500 thousand. Whenever we distribute them we will take down the people's addresses and telephone numbers so that we can get in touch with them later on.
We have so far already distributed some 100 thousand tickets. So in fact even without your participation in the campaign, New York members alone can do the job. With you people added in, we will let the New Yorkers know and stir up the whole city from comer to comer.
Even the citizens of New York who came to know the activities of our members, began to think that this group will be successful. It cannot fail. "They are so persevering," they say. "They are so stubborn and so persevering that they can never fail. " So when you look so stubborn, they don't like it at first; but when they go back to their homes they just admire you. Then they will tell the people in their organization or their children, "Young people must be like that."
For the making of history, you international mobile teams must compete with the New York members and never be defeated. When I find you with strong confidence, I am pleased, because I want to see you beat the New York family. If you have looked at Mr. Kamiyama, he is-how should I say it-frowning. Your goal is an audience of 25 thousand, but my goal is an audience of 50 thousand, and how to make the rumor spread that half the number had to go back home without being admitted.
This year being the final year of our second seven-year course, whether or not we will make it a success is a serious question; and if we conclude this final year of our second seven-year course with a more than full-capacity audience, then our third seven-year course will start from there. If we make our Madison Square Garden project a success in that scope, we will plan for Yankee Stadium soon. Then by that time we will be confident to fill up that place. If we are successful in the Yankee Stadium campaign, then we can plan for a speech with an audience of half a million.
When Reverend Billy Graham spoke in Korea, he had an audience of a half million. We have to have more than half a million, in America. We have no time. People of the world will say that Reverend Billy Graham had an audience of half a million in Korea, but this man, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, has an audience of more than half a million in America. If we don't say that kind of foundation here in America in several years' time, we cannot have the way to open the toll gate to reach out to the world.
Before long, we have to mobilize 3,000 young people as an international mobile team to land in other countries. Which of you will be chosen for that is the question. In that case you will have already paved the way on which you can meet the top government officials of those nations. I have to establish the record of having done that much in seven years' time starting from the year 1974 up to the year 1977, or at the latest 1978. What I am doing is always in accordance with God's will; we must do things in conformity with God's timetable. There is not always time under God's plan. Madison Square Garden will be the final project which, by our success, will open the toll gate to reach out to the world. By our doing this, we will have set up the condition to open mission fields in other countries, too. Then, in that case, the missionaries sent to new countries will not have to go through too much difficulty.
There are many millionaires and billionaires in this country, but the United States law makes it difficult for them to pass their money onto their descendants, so they choose rather to give it away, or make donations or contributions to organizations. Suppose there are ten thousand companies, and each of the ten thousand would donate to us ten thousand dollars. How much would that be? A hundred million. Then people will compete to donate money to us, and you won't have to sell peanuts and flowers and candles. At the moment, our PR members are working hard to contact these people, but they do that for Madison Square Garden. From time to time we have been offered a donation, but I would tell them not to receive it for the time being. I would have them tell those people, "We don't need ten thousand dollars," and things like that, "But if you are ready to give us a donation of more than 100 thousand dollars, we may. . . ." When they hear this from a small, cute female PR member, they are astonished and surprised. But they know that these people are serious and confident, because I am confident behind you.
Next year, I am going to send out 360 missionaries to 120 nations. This time we are going to send three young people from each nation-one European, one American, and one Japanese member. But until they are well settled in those countries, we will send money to support their activities there. If we send a thousand dollars a month to each nation, that means we have to have $360,000 a month. That's what I am planning now. Then we are going to organize three international teams, one for Japan, one for Europe, and one for America, each consisting of one thousand members. So we must fill up the quota of one person per month. There is no question of your being able to bring in one member in three months' time. But if you will fill the quota of one person per month, there will be a radical development in our movement.
So on the mobile teams you belong to, you are getting trained for that purpose, and capable people will be chosen. When you are sent to those countries as missionaries, you will have to lay the foundation at least in three years' time. Then after laying the foundation, then you will be given another job. If in three years' time you have laid the foundation, then you will be brought back here. We will educate you in the universities we will have established by that time. I want you to study hard in the university and earn the doctorate degree. By our doing that, we will train core members of the Unification Church to be world leaders.
Then during the third seven-year course, we will all be working for things on the worldwide level. All the national leaders will be brought back to be educated in the university; then later on more people will be recruited through the missionaries in those nations, and we will bring brilliant young people of those nations to be educated here. Before long we will make our university number one.
We initiated the International Leadership Seminar last year to bring students from Cambridge and Oxford Universities in England; but this year there are more people here from European nations and Japan; through those channels we can reach good, top-level professors in so many nations. Those who are working on campuses will study these people and know they are reliable people; once they are given responsibility, they will carry it out. In order for us to establish ties with professors of noted level, for instance, Nobel Prize winners will be invited to the Unified Science Conference, as we have already done. In November of this year we are going to have another Unified Science Conference in London, and out of the 120 who applied for that, 23 are Nobel Prize winners. That means 20 percent of the number are Nobel Prize winners. Compared to what we did last year, we have made vast strides. Through that channel, too, Reverend Moon is more widely known to the world.
If we establish the system greater than the Nobel Prize, we could invite those Nobel Prize winners, by paying some $50,000 a year, to our university. Now we are in the process of preparing for that. We know that scholars are the brain of world policy, and before long we are going to organize the board of directors, consisting of world famous professors from universities around the world. Through them and with them we are going to organize an award system far excelling the Nobel system, and then through these people we can establish top-level academic standards. What I have said, I will bring to pass.
This is the future university where we are going to educate the brilliant people for the leadership of the whole world, and the fact you are here for the training in this auditorium is very, very meaningful. In Tarrytown next to Belvedere I have bought 260 acres of land for that purpose. When you are here, how do you feel? Are you happy here? You have seen the changes brought about by Father. When you compare our movement two years ago and that at the present moment, you know the difference.
Just the other day I read an article about myself in a Korean newspaper in New York, which said, "It is unthinkable and it is almost strange and unbelievable that Reverend Moon, just an unknown person two years ago, came to the United States and established this much of a foundation. " You seemingly repeat the same thing all over every day, but behind the scenes, I am doing another thing to pave your way. You must realize that. My project is so complicated; I am doing so many things at a time.
Recently, I have been on the boat fishing all the time. I am thinking of opening a marine business. I am not only a great thinker, great speech maker, but a great businessman. Just imagine what will become of our group ten years from now. You can imagine. You can realize that what we plan will come into existence. Some of the things are being done even without your knowledge. Several decades ago, ten years ago perhaps, I began to plan those things, and one by one I came to realize those things. I was a successful man in Korea. I was a considerable success in Japan, too, And am I in the process of being successful in the United States or not? (Yes.) You say yes because you know that, you feel that.
I started my mission bare-handed, but when I strove hard to realize God's will, He blessed me with material wealth too. One very serious matter is what percentage of faith you have in me. If you believe in me 100 percent, nothing is impossible for us to do. We have already built the foundation, so that wherever you go in the United States, in each state, you have places to stay, brothers and sisters to welcome you. The same thing is true in the forty nations where we have missionaries. In the near future we will have 120 such nations, and through our missionaries the road will be so paved that you can meet ambassadors in those countries and the presidents and the policy makers. All those things are ready for you. Would you want that to happen? It's already being done.
We are here, and we have experienced that the young people can become one, transcending nationality. If you can really become one in harmonious oneness and love right here in the United States, even though I pass away to the spirit world, you will go on, making the world into oneness and harmony. Our building of the kingdom of God will never be a failure.
Suppose one of the twelve disciples of Jesus were still alive here; people will just want to follow him and learn from him what Jesus was like. All the people will gather around him. Wouldn't that be true? Then through that movement you can make Christianity into oneness. The Christian foundation has been laid and paved during the past 2,000 years, and we have inherited all of them to our side in twenty years' time or less. If you are alive when I pass away, as a disciple of mine, how much influence can you make or transmit to the whole world? Just the title of your having been disciple will mean a lot, and even though you are undereducated and underprivileged, even though you are crippled or lame, that wouldn't matter. People will just swarm around you to follow you. So each one of you must be confident that you are going to be great leaders in the future.
With equal confidence and renewed dedication, you have to make Madison Square Garden a success this time. Are you determined to do that? If you are determined to do that, will you please hold up your hands? Then how many can each one of you bring to the auditorium? If each one of you 700 can bring thirty persons, you can fill up the whole place. That means that each one of you must be responsible for thirty persons or more. It's not so easy. I trust you, and there will be no difficulty to bring 30 people each.
I want you to be determined to fill up the whole of Madison Square Garden without the New York members having to work. You must have that confidence. And the New York members will say, "We don't have to have your help. We can manage to do the job ourselves. " I will have to put you two parties in competition, good competition. Then Madison Square Garden will overflow, and as I look at you I am confident of that.
Let's come back to the mainstream of my topic today "Let us become the person of central value." This city of New York is the best arena for us to work for that purpose, and I want you to prove your capability here. In my sight, we have too many members here. We don't need this many for this project. I want you to really bring success to the project.
I have difficulty here. You must have heard the rumor of my having fed the members who were here after the fast and prayer with the fish I caught, and you would expect me to do the same. What if I don't catch so many fish this time. We are now in the season when not many fish are in the sea near America. I cannot chase them around, so you cannot expect me to feed you with fish this time? I was right to think that you have been expecting that of me. If you have expected me to give to you a rich dish of fish, hold up your hand. From the way you laugh, I can see that all of you expected it.
So far, I set up the record of catching 162 tuna fish or blue fish a day, but that was the size of 15 pounds each. These days that band of fish is gone, and we have to go so much farther into the Atlantic Ocean to catch a 700 to over one thousand-pound tuna fish. I weigh just over 200 pounds, so that means the tuna fish is going to be three times as heavy as myself. If I catch one fish of that size a day, I can feed you. But it is not easy; it is never easy. So I am anxious to catch a big fish to feed you once at least, so if I disappear by tomorrow, you know that I am out fishing. What I am planning is to go to the sea near Boston this time. Would you rather have me here every day, even though I may not catch fish? You would rather not have fish even though I may be here with you? You say no, but in your minds you are saying yes. If you know the significance of having eaten fish caught by Master, your answer will be different. Your descendants will in later days say, "Our grandfather, our grandmother ate the fish Master caught in their days. " Then each one of you can tell the story to your grandchildren that Father caught the fish for you.
Then by now you are ready to think, "It's okay if Father is not here with us, but I only hope that on the final day Father will appear with a big tuna fish. It will be good if he can come to us and speak before us while we are in New York. " Some day I will be before you to talk while you are still in New York, so don't be discouraged, even though I don't appear before you these few days. If I don't come back to you within a month, you can calculate that I have not caught fish, even though spending that much time. What I think is that if God loves you, the fish will be there, and I can catch it easily.
You say you don't have to eat the fish and want to have me here, but more than you yourselves and more than anything else, I want to catch the fish for you. That's what I want.
So from time to time I will kidnap one of your commanders and they will be gone. Don't be sorry for that. You people must be ready with one truck all the time, and if I phone you must dash here to the waterfront right away with the truck so that I can load that 700-or one thousand-pound tuna fish. If I am forced to be a failure, then I will at least buy one for you. So whether or not I catch the fish, you will be eating the fish anyway. One of the training programs this time is for you to eat raw fish, which Father likes very much. Once you taste it, you will like it more than I do, I am sure. Young people must be concerned about the sea. It is a broader stage for us to work.
I want you to choose among you those who are going to be responsible over the marine business in the later days. By doing these things these days, I am setting the tradition for you to work in the future. I have been spending so many days on the Atlantic Ocean. As I understand, the seamen are apt to lose their wives because once they are on the sea, they will never come back within half a year's time, so their wives would leave them. Girls don't like to marry seamen. So the number of seamen is decreasing every year. We have to inherit that business. If we take over the business, it means we have to have our male members stay on the sea working for many months. Then our Unification Church brides will not complain about that, I am sure. That's what I foresee, and that is why I am putting emphasis on marine business.
I know too well I that all the members and some of the female members too would want to go on the boat fishing with me on the Atlantic. But you cannot do that this time. Maybe some other day in the future. You are here for training. After the training, maybe I will choose ten of you who will have made the top grade in the examination, and take you on the boat. Then that is going to be a historical event. I will take pictures with you and share the fish on the boat, and we will share many meaningful things together. Then those ten will become famous among all the Unification Church members the world over, and there will be many candidates for your brides. This is my conclusion. I will stop here because you are all pleased to hear about marriage.