ive
mood." What does that mean? "A command." What is the soldier's first
lesson? "Obedience." Have you obeyed this command? Remember the
imperative mood of these words, "_Seek_ first the Kingdom of God."

This is the command of your King. It _must_ be done. I have been
trying to show you what a splendid thing it is; what a reasonable
thing it is; what a happy thing it is; but beyond all these reasons,
it is a thing that _must_ be done, because we are _commanded_ to do it
by our Captain. Now, there is His command to seek _first_ the Kingdom
of God. Have you done it?

"Well," I know some boys will say, "we are going to have a good time,
enjoy life, and then we are going to seek--_last_--the Kingdom of
God."

Now, that is mean; it is nothing else than mean for a boy to take all
the good gifts that God has given him, and then give him nothing back
in return but

HIS WASTED LIFE.

God wants boys' _lives_, not only their souls. It is for active
service that soldiers are drilled, and trained, and fed, and armed.
That is why you and I are in the world at all--not to prepare to go
out of it some day, but to serve God actively in it _now_. It is
monstrous, and shameful, and cowardly to talk of seeking the Kingdom
_last_. It is shirking duty, abandoning one's rightful post, playing
into the enemy's hand by doing nothing to turn his flank. Every hour a
Kingdom is coming in your heart, in your home, in the world near you,
be it a Kingdom of Darkness or a Kingdom of Light. You are placed
where you are, in a particular business, in a particular street, to
help on there the Kingdom of God. You cannot do that when you are old
and ready to die. By that time your companions will have fought their
fight, and lost or won. If they lose, will you not be sorry that you
did not help them? Will you not regret that only at the last you
helped the Kingdom of God? Perhaps you will not be able to do it
then. And then your life has been lost indeed.

Very few people have the opportunity to seek the Kingdom of God at the
end. Christ, knowing all that, knowing that religion was a thing for
our life, not merely for our death-bed, has laid this command upon us
now: "Seek _first_ the Kingdom of God."

I am going to leave you with this text itself. Every boy in the world
should obey it.

Boys, before you go to work to-morrow, before you go to sleep
to-night, resolve that, God helping you, you are going to seek _first_
the Kingdom of G