him. If he pleased to
take a shape, and that shape were presented to us, and we saw that
shape, we should not therefore be seeing God. Even if we knew it was a
shape of God--call it even God himself our eyes rested upon; if we had
been told the fact and believed the report; yet, if we did not see the
_Godness_, were not capable of recognizing him, so as without the report
to know the vision him, we should not be seeing God, we should only be
seeing the tabernacle in which for the moment he dwelt. In other words,
not seeing what in the form made it a form fit for him to take, we
should not be seeing a presence which could only be God.

To see God is to stand on the highest point of created being. Not until
we see God--no partial and passing embodiment of him, but the abiding
presence--do we stand upon our own mountain-top, the height of the
existence God has given us, and up to which he is leading us. That there
we should stand, is the end of our creation. This truth is at the heart
of everything, means all kinds of completions, may be uttered in many
ways; but language will never compass it, for form will never contain
it. Nor shall we ever see, that is know God perfectly. We shall indeed
never absolutely know man or woman or child; but we may know God as we
never can know human being--as we never can know ourselves. We not only
may, but we must so know him, and it can never be until we are pure in
heart. Then shall we know him with the infinitude of an ever-growing
knowledge.

'What is it, then, to be pure in heart?'

I answer, It is not necessary to define this purity, or to have in the
mind any clear form of it. For even to know perfectly, were that
possible, what purity of heart is, would not be to be pure in heart.

'How then am I to try after it? can I do so without knowing what it is?'

Though you do not know any definition of purity, you know enough to
begin to be pure. You do not know what a man is, but you know how to
make his acquaintance--perhaps even how to gain his friendship. Your
brain does not know what purity is; your heart has some acquaintance
with purity itself. Your brain in seeking to know what it is, may even
obstruct your heart in bettering its friendship with it. To know what
purity is, a man must already be pure; but he who can put the question,
already knows enough of purity, I repeat, to begin to become pure. If
this moment you determine to start for purity, your conscience will at
once