realize the ideal, to make the abstract concrete, to bring down the
fair vision of divine purpose to the level of actual human life and
experience, and the secret is declared in the opening words: "He that
sent me is with me; my Father hath not left me alone."

The perfect ideal for my life, then, is that I live always in the
realm of the things that please God; and the secret by which I may do
so is here unfolded--by living in perpetual, unbroken communion with
God: communion with which I do not permit anything to interfere. Then
it shall be possible for me to pass into this high realm of actual
realization.

It is important that we should remind ourselves in a few sentences
that the Lord has indeed stated the highest possible ideal for human
life in these words: "The things that please him." Oh, the godlessness
of men! The godlessness that is to be found on every hand! The
godlessness of the men and women that are called by the name of God!
How tragic, how sad, how awful it is! because godlessness is always
not merely an act of rebellion against God, but a falling-short in our
own lives of their highest and most glorious possibilities.

Here is my life. Now, the highest realm for me is the realm where all
my thoughts, and all my deeds, and all my methods, and everything in
my life please God. That is the highest realm, because God only knows
what I am; only perfectly understands the possibilities of my nature,
and all the great reaches of my being. You remember those lines that
Tennyson sang--very beautifully, I always think:

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies;--