To see God is to stand on the highest point of created being.  Not until we see God—­no partial and passing embodiment of him, but the abiding presence—­do we stand upon our own mountain-top, the height of the existence God has given us, and up to which he is leading us.  That there we should stand, is the end of our creation.  This truth is at the heart of everything, means all kinds of completions, may be uttered in many ways; but language will never compass it, for form will never contain it.  Nor shall we ever see, that is know God perfectly.  We shall indeed never absolutely know man or woman or child; but we may know God as we never can know human being—­as we never can know ourselves.  We not only may, but we must so know him, and it can never be until we are pure in heart.  Then shall we know him with the infinitude of an ever-growing knowledge.

‘What is it, then, to be pure in heart?’

I answer, It is not necessary to define this purity, or to have in the mind any clear form of it.  For even to know perfectly, were that possible, what purity of heart is, would not be to be pure in heart.

‘How then am I to try after it? can I do so without knowing what it is?’

Though you do not know any definition of purity, you know enough to begin to be pure.  You do not know what a man is, but you know how to make his acquaintance—­perhaps even how to gain his friendship.  Your brain does not know what purity is; your heart has some acquaintance with purity itself.  Your brain in seeking to know what it is, may even obstruct your heart in bettering its friendship with it.  To know what purity is, a man must already be pure; but he who can put the question, already knows enough of purity, I repeat, to begin to become pure.  If this moment you determine to start for purity, your conscience will at once tell you where to begin.  If you reply, ’My conscience says nothing definite’; I answer, ’You are but playing with your conscience.  Determine, and it will speak.’

If you care to see God, be pure.  If you will not be pure, you will grow more and more impure; and instead of seeing God, will at length find yourself face to face with a vast inane—­a vast inane, yet filled full of one inhabitant, that devouring monster, your own false self.  If for this neither do you care, I tell you there is a Power that will not have it so; a Love that will make you care by the consequences of not caring.

You who seek purity, and would have your fellow-men also seek it, spend not your labour on the stony ground of their intellect, endeavouring to explain what purity is; give their imagination the one pure man; call up their conscience to witness against their own deeds; urge upon them the grand resolve to be pure.  With the first endeavour of a soul toward her, Purity will begin to draw nigh, calling for admittance; and never will a man have to pause in the divine toil, asking what next is required of him; the demands of the indwelling Purity will ever be in front of his slow-labouring obedience.