2. Never Give Up, but Persevere to the Very End

World Scripture

Scripture credits with performance not him who begins a task, but him who completes it.
Talmud, Sota 13b (Judaism)

He who endures to the end will be saved.
Mark 13.13

But Lot’s wife behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Genesis 19.26

Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.
Galatians 6.9

You have crossed the great ocean; why do you halt so near the shore? Make haste to get on the other side, Gautama; be careful all the while!
Uttaradhyayana Sutra 10.34 (Jainism)

To try to achieve anything is like digging a well. You can dig a hole nine fathoms deep, but if you fail to reach the source of water, it is just an abandoned well.
Mencius VII.A.29 (Confucianism)

Suppose a man goes to the forest to get some of the pith that grows in the center of a tree and returns with a burden of branches and leaves, thinking that he has secured what he went after; would he not be foolish? A person seeks a path that will lead him away from misery; and yet, he follows that path a little way, notices some little advance, and immediately becomes proud and conceited. He is like the man who sought pith and came back satisfied with a burden of branches and leaves. Another man goes into the forest seeking pith and comes back with a load of branches. He is like the person on the path who becomes satisfied with the progress he has made by a little effort, and relaxes his effort and becomes proud and conceited. Another man comes back carrying a load of bark instead of the pith he was looking for. He is like the person who finds that his mind is becoming calmer and his thoughts clearer, and then relaxes his effort and becomes proud and conceited. Then another man brings back a load of the woody fiber of the tree instead of the pith. Like him is one who has gained a measure of intuitive insight, and then relaxes his effort. All of these seekers, who become easily satisfied after insufficient effort and become proud and overbearing, relax their efforts and easily fall into idleness. All these people will inevitably face suffering again.
Majjhima Nikaya 1.192-95: Simile of the Pith (Buddhism)

Master Tseng said, “The true Knight of the Way must perforce be both broad-shouldered and stout of heart; his burden is heavy and he has far to go. For Goodness is the burden he has taken upon himself; and must we not grant that it is a heavy one to bear? Only with death does his journey end; then must we not grant that he has far to go?”
Analects 8.7 (Confucianism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

The Bible records… that in the Last Days even people with faith will find it hard to survive. Therefore, you must endure and forbear until the very end if you are to overcome this age of chaos and become victors.
(4:237, May 18, 1958)

Our endurance should not end midway; it should go all the way. God has endured for six thousand years for this. Who is God? He is our Father. Because we inherited His flesh and blood and His virtues, we must be like Him.
(44:28, May 4, 1971)

You cannot complete your life of faith in one morning or one day. It is a lifelong path. In a life of faith, the main issue is to maintain your dedication with a constant mind and heart with a view towards eternity, beyond death. Your center core must be unchanging. No matter how difficult, sorrowful or painful, it can never change. To follow the path of faith you must discover this core in yourself, something you can never deny.
(59:234-35, July 23, 1972)

Even though you have forbearance, you may realize that it is far from the terminal point. Today many who have been supporting our church say that they are too tired to go on. You hear people say that the Unification Church is good, but its way is too difficult to follow… Indeed, it is hard to go this way. It is a path of tears—tears over what we see, tears over what we feel, and tears in the midst of struggle. Some think that now the time has come for the tears to stop, but it is not yet. I know that the tears must continue; I know that the heart of God is waiting for more tears of forbearance, waiting for us, the plaintive ones. I cannot lift my face before Him even though I have endured thus far. Though I have endured from 1945 until today,²¹ I have never thought about when I might reach the limit of patient forbearance. I do not even wish for the days of endurance to end. It is a normal experience in the life of faith that once you start wishing for something to end you start looking after yourselves, and from that point on you feel anxious.
(6:89, March 29, 1959)

God is eternal. Once He determines to do something, He never alters His course in the middle. What about you? You may be determined, but how long will you continue?

For a month, a year, several years, ten years? Or will you continue for your entire lifetime? Your determination is bound to change. Sometimes you say to yourself, “If I like it, then I will do it. If I do not like it, I will not do it.”

However, truth is truth whether you live or die; it is eternal. Truth is beyond death, beyond changeability.

Therefore, in order to be a true person, with the steadfastness of unchanging truth, you have to be beyond death. To be beyond death, you first have to conquer death. This means there will be a collision at some point between your changeability and unchangeability.

When they collide, your changeable elements will shatter and only your unchanging elements will remain. It will be a collision between life and death. At that time you must overcome death; then you will have life. It is reasonable that you must pass through this stage on the path to making a relationship with God.

When will the moment of truth come for you? It will be the time when there arises an opportunity to be unchanging and changing at the same time. Both life and death appear before you. That is when the truth emerges.
(66:43, March 18, 1973)