for world peace!" This is all in this declaration by Buchman: "I challenge Denmark to be a miracle among the nations, her national policy dictated by God, her national defense the respect and gratitude of her neighbors, her national armament an army of life-changers. Denmark can demonstrate to the nations that spiritual power is the first force in the world. The true patriot gives his life to bring about his country's resurrection." The Four Absolutes Moral standards of "Absolute honesty", "Absolute purity", "Absolute unselfishness", and "Absolute love", though recognized as impossible to attain, were guidelines to help determine whether a course of action was "directed by God". The "Four Absolutes" seem to have first appeared in a book by Robert E. Speer, titled The Principles of Jesus. In the Chapter, Jesus and Standards, Speer laid down "Four Principles" (honesty, purity, unselfishness, love) that he believed represented the distilled, uncompromising, moral principles taught by Jesus. Speer quoted Bible verses for each "Principle". In 1909, Professor Henry Burt Wright of Yale, citing Speer's work, dug up many more Bible verses that set forth these same Principles in the YMCA book: The Will of God and a Man's Lifework. Wright dubbed them Absolute rather than "Principles". Next, Frank Buchman and the Oxford Group adopted and popularized the phrase "The Four Absolutes". In Oxford Group terms, sin was "anything that kept one from God or one another" and is "as contagious as any bodily disease". The soul needs cleansing: "We all know 'nice' sinless sinners who need that surgical spiritual operation as keenly as the most miserable sinner of us all." Spiritual practices To be "spiritually reborn", the Oxford Group advocated four practices set out below: "Sharing our sins and temptations with another Christian". "Restitution to all whom we have wronged, directly or indirectly". "Surrender our life past, present and future, to God's keeping and direction". "Listening for God's guidance, and carrying it out". Sharing In the Oxford Group, sharing was considered a necessity. Sharing referred to telling others, in small or big groups, about personal life details of sins, steps to change behaviours and their results, as well as telling others what guidance was received during a "quiet time". It allowed one to be healed, therefore it was also a blessing to share. Sharing was considered to not only bring relief, but honest sharing of sin, and of "victory over sin", was considered