our Lord?
"Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." Not
merely--not dwell in it for ever, but not even enter it, not even get
through the very gate, and cross the very threshold, of it. The merely
assenting, merely respectable, even the so-called religious and orthodox
life will not let you into the kingdom of heaven, either in this life or
the life to come. No. That requires the noble life, the pure life, the
just life, the gentle life, the generous life, the heroic life, the
Godlike life, which is perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect,
because He lets His sun shine on the evil and on the good, and His rain
fall on the just and on the unjust. But how will this help you to rise
in life? Our Lord Himself answers--and our Lord should surely know--"Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added to you." Have faith in God, and in His promise; and your
faith in God shall be rewarded. You shall find that your heavenly Father
knows that you have need of all these things; and has arranged His
kingdom, and the whole universe, accordingly. The very good things of
this world--wealth, honour, power, and the rest, for the sake of which
worldly men quarrel, and envy, and slander, and bully, and cringe, and
commit all basenesses and crimes--all these shall come to you of their
own accord by the providence of your Father in heaven and by His
everlasting Laws, if you will but learn and do God's will, and lead the
Christlike and the Godlike life. Honour and power, wealth and
prosperity, as much of them as is justly good for you, and as much of
them as you deserve--that is, earn and merit by your own ability and self-
control--shall come to you by the very laws of the universe and by the
very providence of God. You shall find that godliness hath the promise
of this life, as well as of the life which is to come. You shall find
that God's kingdom is a well-made and well-ordered kingdom; and that His
laws are life, and are far more worth trusting in than the maxims of that
ill-made and ill-ordered world of man, which you all renounced at your
baptism. You shall find that the promises of Scripture are no dreams,
but actual practical living truths, which come true, and fulfil
themselves, in the lives and histories of men.

Choose, young men; choose now; and make up your minds which w