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.

5. THE INCREASING KINGDOM

Now of the more intimate and personal life of the believer it will be
more convenient to write a little later. Let us for the present pursue
the idea of this world-kingdom of God, to whose establishment he calls
us. This kingdom is to be a peaceful and co-ordinated activity of all
mankind upon certain divine ends. These, we conceive, are first,
the maintenance of the racial life; secondly, the exploration of the
external being of nature as it is and as it has been, that is to
say history and science; thirdly, that exploration of inherent human
possibility which is art; fourthly, that clarification of thought and
knowledge which is philosophy; and finally, the progressive enlargement
and development of the racial life under these lights, so that God may
work through a continually better body of humanity and through better
and better equipped minds, that he and our race may increase for ever,
working unendingly upon the development of the powers of life and the
mastery of the blind forces of matter throughout the deeps of space. He
sets out with us, we are persuaded, to conquer ourselves and our world
and the stars. And beyond the stars our eyes can as yet see nothing, our
imaginations reach and fail. Beyond the limits of our understanding is
the veiled Being of Fate, whose face is hidden from us. . . .

It may be that minds will presently appear among us of such a quality
that the face of that