Christ, and that every household where His gospel is believed should
find its highest honour and its greatest joy in helping to extend His
kingdom.

And then suppose that the Christian life, in its daily manifestation,
should come to be marked and known by simplicity and happiness. Suppose
that the followers of Jesus should really escape from bondage to the
evil spirits of avarice and luxury which infect and torment so much of
our complicated, tangled, artificial, modern life. Suppose that instead
of increasing their wants and their desires, instead of loading
themselves down on life's journey with so many bags and parcels and
boxes of superfluous luggage and bric-a-brac that they are forced to sit
down by the roadside and gasp for breath, instead of wearing themselves
out in the dusty ways of ostentation and vain show or embittering their
hearts because they can not succeed in getting into the weary race of
wealth and fashion,--suppose instead of all this, they should turn to
quiet ways, lowly pleasures, pure and simple joys, "plain living and
high thinking." Suppose they should truly find and show their happiness
in the knowledge that God loves them and Christ died for them and heaven
is sure, and so set their hearts free to rejoice in life's common
mercies, the light of the sun, the blue of the sky, the splendour of the
sea, the peace of the everlasting hills, the song of birds, the
sweetness of flowers, the wholesome savour of good food, the delights of
action and motion, the refreshment of sleep, the charm of music, the
blessings of human love and friendship,--rejoice in all these without
fear or misgiving, because they come from God and because Christ has
sanctified them all by His presence and touch.

Suppose, I say, that such a revival of the joy of living in Christ and
working for Christ should silently sweep over the Church in the