Page:The Pathway of Roses, Larson (1913) image of page 78.jpg

78 moral action, but the right use of the elements of life in all action.

To seek His kingdom first, it is not necessary to withdraw from the world, nor to deny oneself the good things that exist in the world; to seek the kingdom first, is to give one's strongest thought to the spiritual life, and to make spiritual thought the predominating thought in everything that one may do in life. In other words, go to God first for everything, place your greatest dependence upon His power to carry you through everything, and live so close to His kingdom within that you are fully conscious of that kingdom every moment.

To seek the kingdom first, the heart must be in the spirit; that is, to live the spiritual life must be the predominating desire; but the mental conception of the spiritual life must not be narrow; in brief, that conception must contain the perfection of everything that can possibly appear in life. To think of the spiritual life as being distinct from mind and body is to deter the spiritual life from being expressed in mind and body; but what is not expressed is not lived. To think about the spiritual, or to feel the emotional power of the spiritual is not sufficient; but that is as far as the spiritual life has been taken by the average person; that the other things were not added is therefore no fault of the law.

The spiritual life must be thoroughly lived in mind and body; the power of the spirit