SECULAR LIFE AND RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 455 



he is set. We acknowledge to the full Jesus' contention for the 

 inward nature, the spiritual character of that kingdom. The real 

 genius of the kingdom of God is a nobler and holier spirit in man, 

 primarily in the individual man. The gist of it is an attitude of 

 the individual mind and heart. The germ of it is a passion for 

 Tightness, the struggle after truth in the individual life. But where 

 that passion and struggle exist they work themselves out. That 

 spirit cannot be, even in one man, without its effect upon the world. 

 And that spirit even in one man will mightily influence other men. 

 The work of numbers of such men will, in the end, modify customs, 

 create institutions, transform societies. Never more forcibly than 

 in our own great civilization was the lesson brought home to us 

 that men never will be happy, nor the world good, save by a happier 

 and better spirit within men themselves. But that is not what has 

 ordinarily been understood by the contention for the inwardness 

 and spiritual character of the kingdom. 



When, therefore, we pray " Thy kingdom come," it is true that 

 our thoughts rest first upon certain individuals whose spirits we 

 could help, and whose lives we could bless. It is true, also, that 

 our thoughts pause for a moment on that which is so inexpressibly 

 dear to us, the Church, whatever be its name, the Church in this 

 nobler sense which I have described. And that is because we deeply 

 feel that there is something of infinite importance which the Church 

 may confer upon the great life of mankind. But when we pray 

 " Thy kingdom come," we mean the hallowing arid glorifying of the 

 great life of mankind in every way. If men only understood how 

 wide and large a thing the kingdom is, how little is artificial in it, 

 where men have made it so artificial and arbitrary, they would see 

 how much religion is behind the daily doing of the world's work, 

 and that on the part of men who might be very much surprised to hear 

 themselves called religious. The phrase " kingdom of God " would 

 not sound to them like a word in an unknown tongue. It would not 

 describe a thing for which they felt no sympathy and toward which 

 they had no desire. Something of the kingdom of God has come 

 every time the truth underlying any one of all our manifold human 

 relations has been discovered. Something of the kingdom of God 

 has come every time men and women have set out with brave and 

 faithful hearts to obey the truth which they have discovered. Some- 

 thing of the kingdom of God has come in every school in which 

 children and youth are being trained in insight and character. 

 Something of it comes in every home where, in the atmosphere of 

 duty and responsibility, a love which hallows all prevails. Some- 

 thing of the kingdom of God comes in every advance of government 

 toward being really good government. Something of the kingdom 

 of God has come with every enlargement of human liberty. Some- 



