The King's Image

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I know I've been posting a lot of Widtsoe quotes, but I LOVE this:

     "A lump of silver is but a lump of silver in the marketplace, sold by weight under the changing market price. If that lump of silver be passed through the mint it becomes something more than a lump of silver. The King's Image pressed upon it makes it coin of the realm. Thenceforth with a value above its weight and market price it is in the King's service.
     "A human life is but a human life, lost in the multitude of indifferent lives, unless it enters the King's service, unless the King's image be impressed upon it. Then it becomes current coin of the King's realm, which may purchase joy, happiness, satisfaction, otherwise unattainable. Does a life bear the King's image? That is a vital question.
     "How may we so coin our lives? How secure the impress of the King's image? It is not a secret. By losing and forgetting ourselves in a great work, a mighty cause. Thus, we enter the King's service. Thus, we come to bear the King's image. Unselfishness! Selflessness! Great words; greater ideals! Keys to the solution of the world's problems! He who forgets himself in noble service will have success thrust upon him. Whoever mingles with his eating and drinking, with his daily toil and moneymaking, with his pleasure and his pain, the act of loving service of his noblest ideal, will rise to the heights, above the clouds, with the envying multitude below. He will be in the King's service. There is really no other way to true success.
     "You ask for the parts of the spiritual minting press? Here I sum! Faith in God; love of truth; obedience to law; courage to say no; sincerity in labor; temperance in all things; generosity, virtue, and industry. These are elements out of which unselfishness is born, and by which the King's image is impressed upon human lives.
     "...[M]ore seeking after truth, more sharing of it with others, until all of life becomes a mission of service in the King's Cause, until all may know that we are in royal service, in the service of the King of Kings. So is success won and joy obtained--everlastingly."


-John A. Widtsoe, in Alan K. Parrish, John A Widtsoe, A Biography, pg. 512.