There is no inner life that is not also an outer life

There is an outer way and an inner way and both are one.

He who asks, with the ground swell of his whole inner being, for the things which minister to life and feed its deepest roots, will get what he asks for.

Religion can no more be cut apart from the intellectual currents, or from the moral undertakings, or from the social tasks of an age, than any other form of life can be isolated from its native environment. But at the same time the only possible way to realize a kingdom of God in this world, or in any other world, is to begin by getting an inner spirit, the spirit of the Kingdom…

(In the Beatitudes), in a few lines, loaded with insight, the seed-spirit of the Kingdom comes full into sight. We are given no new code, no new set of rules, no legal system at all. It is the proclamation of a new spirit, a new way of living, a new type of person. … this spirit would produce not only a new inner world, but a new outer world as well.

The beatitude [blessedness] lies not in attainment, not in the arrival at a goal, but in the way, in the spirit, in the search, in the march.

 – excerpts from Rufus Jones, The Inner Life, 1922.

When Jesus saw the vast crowds he went up the hill-side and after he had sat down his disciples came to him. Then he began his teaching by saying to them,

How happy are those who know their need for God,
for the kingdom of Heaven [the kingdom within] is theirs!

How happy are those who know what sorrow means,
for they will be given courage and comfort!

Happy are those who claim nothing,
for the whole earth will belong to them!

Happy are those who are hungry and thirsty for true goodness,
for they will be fully satisfied! [“Seek and you will find.”]

Happy are the merciful,
for they will have mercy shown to them!

Happy are the utterly sincere,
for they will see God!

Happy are those who make peace,
for they will be known as sons of God!

Happy are those who have suffered persecution for the cause of goodness,
for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs!

And what happiness will be yours when people blame you and ill-treat you
and say all kinds of slanderous things against you for my sake!
Be glad then, yes, be tremendously glad–
for your reward in heaven is magnificent!

Matthew 5: 1 – 12a

The New Testament in Modern English,
Revised Student Edition
translated by J. B. Phillips, 1958.