^ " Open the door and let in more of that music," the dying man said to his weeping son. Behmen was already hearing the harpers harping with their harps. He was already taking his part in the song they sing in Heaven to Him who loved them and washe'i them from their sins in His own blood. And now said the blessed Behmen, " I go to-day to be with my Kedeemer and my King in Paradise," and so died.^
When He appoints to meet thee, go thou forth;
It matters not If south or north,
Bleak waste or sunny plot. Nor think, if haply He thou seek'st be late,
He does thee wrong ; To stile or gate
Lean thou thy head, and long ! It may be that to spy thee He is mounting
Upon a tower, Or in thy counting
Thou hast mista'en the hour.
^ H. "VV. Morrow, Questions Asked and Answered by our Lord, 129, - Alexander Whyte, Jacob Behmen : an Appreciation.
PSALM xvi. 5, 6 277
But, if He come not, neither do thou go
Till Vesper chime; Belike thou then shalt know
He hath been with thee all the time.^
III.
A Satisfied Ambition.
" The lines are fallen in pleasant places ; yea, I have a g-oodly heritage."
The man who finds his treasure in God, declares that he is satisfied. The happiness of this mysterious nature of ours is never to be found merely in the possession of God's gifts, the works of His hand, or the bounties of His providence. The soul can find its true satisfaction only in rising beyond the gifts, and claiming the Giver as its own. When you covet the friendship or love of a fellowman, it does not satisfy you that he bestows upon you only outward gifts — his money, his property, his books — what cares a loving, longing heart for these ? Unless the man gives you something more than these, gives you himself, and be- comes yours by the bond of deepest sympathy and affection, the rest are but worthless boons. So is it in the soul's relations with God. That after which, as by a mysterious and inborn affinity, every devout spirit yearns, is not God's gifts and bounties, but Himself. The wealth of worlds would be, to the heart longing after Deity, a miserable substitute for one look of love from the Great Father's eye. " My soul thirsteth for God " is the language in which Scripture' gives expression to this deep want of our nature, and points to the inefl'able satisfaction provided for it, — " My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God." — " As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, 0 God ! " — " If a man love me, my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." — " I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one."
1. Animal enjoyment may be pure of its kind, may be part of the constitution of things, but it is brief, exhaustive ! But those pleasures which are filled with the spirit, the mind, the heart, are
^ T. E, Brown, Old John and other Poems, 244.
278 A GOODLY HERITAGE
fresh. And what is true of the mind is truer still of the soul. We have a tripartite nature — Body, Soul, and Spirit. We may not be able to break it up, and divide it by exact analysis, but there is that which answers to Paul's definition ; there is body, soul, and spirit. We feel it. And in the soul there is a region infinite — it can have the very pleasures of God Himself. It can share His nature; it can share His thouglits; it can share His purposes ; it can share His purity. It can come away from that which is bounded, intellectually, by earth's horizon, and it can enter into the region where, in fellowship with God, it shall realize the infinite vision and true rapture of the soul. And this is inexhaustible, because the soul is immortal. The love of Christ is an ever-progressive thing — " to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." " That we may be filled with all the fulness of God."
^ All the happiness of this life is but trying to quench thirst out of golden empty cups.^
Filled with a grateful, calm content, My soul sits happy, and she sings; While all the many, many things That men call good, and think them so, That are not mine, and may not be, — My Father doth not give them me — I am content to let them go.
Pass by, gay world, yes, pass thee by, Nor too much vex me with thy care; • 0, restless world, thou art so fair !
See, I have learned this thing of thee; Thou look'st so little in the light Which pours upon my inner sight, And shines from great eternity!
2. In harmony with the great Centre, we will be in harmony with all things in His universe. Nature will serve him who serves her God ; and all her varied powers and agencies will rejoice to obey the behests and minister to the welfare of one who is the loved and loving child of their great Master and Lord. The earth will be fulfilling its proper function in yielding us