“The Kingdom of God first!” How am I to reach that blessed life?  The answer is:  “Give up everything for it.”  And then a second answer would be this:  Live every day and hour of your life in the humble desire to maintain that position.  There are people who hear this test, and who say it is true, and that they want to obey it.  But if you were to ask them how much time they spend with God day by day, you would be surprised and grieved to hear how little time they give up to Him.  And yet they wonder that the blessedness of the divine life disappears.  We prove the value we attach to things by the time we devote to them.  The Kingdom should be first every day, and all the day.  Let the Kingdom be first every morning.  Begin the day with God, and God Himself will maintain His Kingdom in your heart.  Do believe that.  Rome did its utmost to maintain the authority of the man who gave himself to live for it.  And God, the living God, will He not maintain His authority in your soul if you submit to Him?  He will, indeed.  Come to Him; only come, and give yourself up to Him in fellowship through Christ Jesus.  Seek to maintain that fellowship with God all the day.  Ah, friends, a man cannot have the Kingdom of God first, and at times, by way of relaxation, throw it off and seek his enjoyment in the things of this world.  People have a secret idea life will become too solemn, too great a strain; it will be too difficult every moment of the day, from morning to evening, to have the Kingdom of God first.  One sees at once how wrong it is to think thus.  The presence of the love of God must every moment be our highest joy.  Let us say:  “By the help of God, it shall ever be the Kingdom of God first.”

And then, my last remark, in answer to that question, “How can it be?” is this:  it can be only by the power of the Holy Ghost.  Let us remember that God’s Word comes to us with the language, “Be filled with the Spirit;” and if you are content with less of the Spirit than God offers, not utterly and entirely yielding to be filled with the Spirit, you do not obey the command.  But listen:  God has made a wonderful provision.  Jesus Christ came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and proclaimed “The Kingdom is at hand.”  “Some,” He said, “are standing here who will not see death until they see the Kingdom come in power.”  He said to the disciples, “The Kingdom is within you.”  And when did the Kingdom come—­that Kingdom of God upon earth?  When the Holy Ghost descended.  On Ascension Day the King went and sat down upon the throne at the right hand of God, and the Kingdom of God, in Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth, was inaugurated.  When the Holy Ghost came down He brought God into the heart, and Christ, and established the rule of God in power.  I am afraid sometimes, that in speaking of the Holy Spirit we forget one thing.  The Holy Spirit is very much spoken of in connection with power; and it is right that we should seek power.  It is not so much spoken of