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And that idea of God as the Invisible King of the whole world means
not merely that God is to be made and declared the head of the
world, but that the kingdom of God is to be present throughout the
whole fabric of the world, that the Kingdom of God is to be in the
teaching at the village school, in the planning of the railway
siding of the market town, in the mixing of the mortar at the
building of the workman's house. It means that ultimately no effigy
of intrusive king or emperor is to disfigure our coins and stamps
any more; God himself and no delegate is to be represented wherever
men buy or sell, on our letters and our receipts, a perpetual
witness, a perpetual reminder. There is no act altogether without
significance, no power so humble that it may not be used for or
against God, no life but can orient itself to him. To realise God
in one's heart is to be filled with the desire to serve him, and the
way of his service is neither to pull up one's life by the roots nor
to continue it in all its essentials unchanged, but to turn it
about, to turn everything that there is in it round into his way.
The outward duty of those who serve God must vary greatly with the
abilities they possess and the positions in which they find
themselves, but for all there are certain fundamental duties; a
constant attempt to be utterly truthful with oneself, a constant
sedulousness to keep oneself fit and bright for God's service, and
to increase one's knowledge and powers, and a hidden persistent
watchfulness of one's baser motives, a watch against fear and
indolence, against vanity, against greed and lust, against envy,
malice, and uncharitableness. To have found God truly does in
itself make God's service one's essential motive, but these evils
lurk in the shadows, in the lassitudes and unwary moments. No one
escapes them altogether, there is no need for tragic moods on
account of imperfections. We can no more serve God without blunders
and set-backs than we can win battles without losing men. But the
less of such loss the better. The servant of God must keep his mind
as wide and sound and his motives as clean as he can, just as an
operating surgeon must keep his nerves and muscles as fit and his
hands as clean as he can. Neither may righteously evade exercise
and regular washing--of mind as of hands. An incessant watchfulness
of one's self and one's thoughts and the soundness of one's
thoughts; cleanliness, clearness, a wariness against indolence and
prejudice, careful truth, habitual frankness, fitness and steadfast
work; these are the daily fundamental duties that every one who
truly comes to God will, as a matter of course, set before himself.
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