could never see. No
practical wisdom could ever grasp. Were all the sum of practical wisdom
gathered in a little room, and infused with spirit until it burst the
four walls of the world, yet it might not grasp it.... Yet all things
worked that this plan should come to fruition. The stars rolled in their
courses. The great winds came. There fell the rain of April and the soft
December snow.... And the kingdom was a good kingdom, for nothing evil
conquered ever.... It died and was eliminated, and when it was all as
nothing then might the kingdom come ... no arbitrary blowing of
Gabriel's trumpet, but that foremost sweetness that comes from the west
wind....

"Thy will be done on earth ..."

It was always done on earth, but the ignoble, the inglorious, the small
put their petty obstacles in its way, and delayed the coming of the
kingdom.... Men grew engrossed in their affairs, grew self-sufficient. A
little money in their pockets, and God was forgotten. A little more and
they despised their fellow-men, and hatred arose. And evil wars came,
and years were lost.... Cunning men put the emotions, the ideals, the
actions of glorious men up for barter.... And the men who were tricked
brooded.... And the cunning men took the land and the waters and the
light, and worked tortuously until they could sell them at a price....
And the things God had made for his people were the means to procure
these dark folk wine and mistresses and the state of kings.... Such was
not the doing of the Will.... But one day it would be worked out by men
how these things could not ever again be.... The slow certain coming of
the kingdom....

"As it is in heaven ..."

From the green resting-place came all that was sweet and harmonious, the
shape of clouds, the high spirit of horses, the loyalty of dogs, the
graceful movement swans have, and the song of the lesser birds. From
that green resting-place came the gold of the gorse, and the sweet line
of trees, and the purple the heather has--the loved heather. Thence came
the word that set the friendly moon on high, and put out the white
beauty of the young and alternated sunshine with the rains of spring.
All was done there according to wisdom and beauty.

"Give us this day our daily bread ..."

That was no whine for the prisoner's dole. That was the simplicity of
asking that the moon and the sun still rise. Give beauty to women, and
grace to children, and songs for poets to sing. Let not the green t