Boys, if you are going to be Christians, be Christians as boys, and
not as your grandmothers. A grandmother has to be a Christian as
a grandmother, and that is the right and the beautiful thing for her;
but if you cannot read your Bible by the hours as your grandmother
can, or delight in meetings as she can, don't think you are
necessarily a bad boy. When you are your grandmother's age you will
have your grandmother's kind of religion. Meantime, be a Christian
as a boy. Live a boy's life. Do the straight thing; seek the
kingdom of righteousness and honor and truth. Keep the peace with
the boys about you, and be filled with the joy of being a loyal,
and simple, and natural, and boy-like servant of Christ.

You can very easily tell a house, or a workshop, or an office where
the Kingdom of God is NOT. The first thing you see in that pace
is that the "straight thing" is not always done. Customers do not
get fair play. You are in danger of learning to cheat and to lie.
Better a thousand times to starve than to stay in a place where
you cannot do what is right.

Or, when you go into your workshop, you find everybody sulky, touchy,
and ill-tempered, everybody at daggers-drawn with everybody else,
some of the men not on speaking terms with some of the others, and
the whole FEEL of the place miserable and unhappy. The Kingdom of
God is not thee, for IT is peace. It is the Kingdom of the Devil
that is anger, and wrath and malice.

If you want to get the Kingdom of God into your workshop, or
into your home, let the quarreling be stopped. Live in peace and
harmony and brotherliness with everyone. For the Kingdom of God
is a kingdom of brothers. It is a great Society, founded by Jesus