spiritual life." I am sure that to the great
majority of men and women the term spiritual, or better, the spiritual
life, means something, but something by no means fully tangible or
clear-cut. I shall be glad indeed if I am able to suggest a more
comprehensible concept of it, or putting it in another form and better
perhaps, to present a more clear-cut portraiture of the spiritual life
in expression--in action.

And first let us note that in the mind and in the teachings of Jesus
there is no such thing as the secular life and the religious life. His
ministry pertained to every phase of life. The truth that he taught was
a truth that was to permeate every thought and every act of life.

We make our arbitrary divisions. We are too apt to deny the fact that
the Lord is the Lord of the week-day, the same as He is the Lord of the
Sabbath. Jesus refused to be bound by any such consideration. He taught
that every act that is a good act, every act that is of service to
mankind is not only a legitimate act to be done on the Sabbath day, but
an act that _should_ be performed on the Sabbath day. And any act that
is not right and legitimate for the Sabbath day is neither right nor
legitimate for the week-day. In other words, it is the spirit of
righteousness that must permeate and must govern every act of life and
every moment of life.

In seeking to define the spiritual life, it were better to regard the
world as the expression of the Divine mind. The spirit is the life; the
world and all things in it, the material to be moulded, raised, and
transmuted from the lower to the higher. This is indeed the law of
evolution, that has been through all the ages and that today is at work.
It is the God-Power that is at work and every form of useful activity
that helps on with this process of lifting and bettering is a form of
Divine activity. If therefore we recognise the one Divine life working
in and through all, the animating force, therefore the Life of all, and
if we are consciously helping in this process we are spiritual men.

No man of intelligence can fail to recognise the fact that life is more
important than things. Life is the chief thing, and material things are
the elements that minister to, that serve the purposes of the life.
Whoever does anything in the world to preserve life, to better its
conditions, who, recognising the Divine force at work lifting life up
always to better, finer conditions, is doing God's work in th