2. We must guard against the mistake — into which we may
so easily fall — of applying the text and the lessons to be drawn
' F. W. Farrar, Social and Present Day Questions, 174. ' C. H. Spurgeou.
PSALM cvi. 15 345
from it only to the rich and prosperous, whereas it applies to them in exactly the same sense as it applies to every one, whether he be rich or poor, who is in the state of earnest desire for some earthly good or who is in the state of satisfied desire, a content- ment wholly derived from possession or gratification. And this experience is to be met with in all classes, among all sorts and conditions of men. The Israelites, of whom the words of the text were spoken, were certainly not among the rich, but at the time were poor and afflicted — or thought themselves so — and were therefore all the more in danger of the ill effects of full gratification.
^ There are business men in our city to-day who have schemed for a future which, if analysed, would disclose nothing but a care- ful regard for personal and domestic comfort. I can give you the brief programme of such men : it runs after this fashion — country, garden, quietness, out-door amusements. They are at perfect liberty to leave the city, to abandon the poor, to get away from all that is foetid, noisome, and otherwise offensive; but let them beware lest, in reaching this supposed heaven, they find that they have gone in the wrong direction, and that where they expected heaven to begin they find that they have only reached the outward edge of earth.^
^ There is a German folk story of a very poor charcoal burner who had a kind heart and was always doing good turns to people. He often wished that he were rich that he might help still more. One day in the forest a wicked-looking gnome appeared and told him he would make him rich on one condition. He must exchange his heart of flesh for a wonderful mechanical stone heart that the gnome had made and kept in his workshop in a cave underneath the forest. The poor man did not like the condition, but was tempted and consented to the bargain. He was cast into a deep sleep and when he awoke the exchange had been effected and he felt the stone heart working within him with perfect regularity, but it was cold, very cold. When he got back to the village everybody noticed the change. He was harsh, overbearing, a changed man ; riches came to him ; everything he touched turned to gold, but the richer he grew, the colder seemed the heart, and when old age crept upon him he longed to be poor again and have back his warm human heart. That is a modern way of saying that the man got his request, but leanness came to his soul."
* Joseph Parker. * H. Jeflfs.
346 LEANNESS OF SOUL
III.
The Higiier Satisfaction.
1. How are we to avoid the creeping over us of this insidious disease — leanness of soul ? The Apostle shall answer : — " Set your affections on things above." We conquer by the force and direc- tion of desire. Desire is, in the moral world, like the law of gravitation in the natural world — it determines man's relations to beings and objects around him. Desire is the raw material of goodness or wickedness, and tlius it has everything to do with the formation of character. There is no power like it. Hence the importance attached in the Bible to strong wishes : " Ask, and ye shall have " ; " Seek, and ye shall find " ; " Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Wishes are in truth prayers. We do not pray only when we utter conscious prayers. Every time we wish for anything, our Father understands our wishes.
2. The great lesson, then, which we have to learn from this text is to say from the heart, with trembling yet earnest love, "Not my will but thine be done." That is the lesson ; but where is the school in which it can be learned ? The school is called Calvary. There is no other school in which this lesson is taught. Men may try to reason themselves into it ; men may try by fine philosophy to come to a point of resignation that shall yield them high advantages ; but all their labour will be in vain. We must be slain on the Saviour's cross ; we must enter fully into the pain which our Saviour endured ; our hands and our feet must be nailed to the accursed yet blessed tree ; the very last desire of our selfish- ness must be extinguished, and then shall we come into the joy and the infinite peace of walking with God. Whither are our desires tending ? In which direction are they bearing us, upwards or downwards ? Are we letting ourselves drift towards some crisis which is the culmination of a gradual deterioration, and which may leave us with what we want (or think that we want), at the cost of everything which makes life worth living ? Is desire more and more concentrated on the material, the sensuous ? Is some accomplishment or some passing interest utterly possessing us, and are we becoming lean within — without faith, without