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indeed, when you think of it, you have here the strangest kind of market that you can conceive, in which every maxim of the merchantman is set at naught ; in which the only payment is made by the seller, and all the gain is to the buyers, and in which goods the most precious, the most costly you can think of, are given away for naught.
The Universal Hunger and Thirst.
The prophet's call is to every one that thirsteth, to all who are unsatisfied, who feel that their life is not filled up, that there is something which they know they still lack, something they crave for, over and above their present possessions.
At the very outset the question meets us. Are there any heyond the reach of the prophet's call ? It is to " every one that thirsteth," but are there those who are not thirsty, who are perfectly contented with what they have, and feel no need of anything more ? Or does the call of the prophet appeal to all men ? It does seem to us that we could point to a contented life which nevertheless does not possess what we know to be the essential secret of contentment. We know men who feel no need of God, who can live on in a world that is full of God and dependent on God, and neither see Him nor feel their dependence ; and if we limit our question to this, Are there men who can exist without feeling a thirst for things higher than what we see and touch ? the answer must be that there are; and it would seem as if the prophet's call were not addressed to them. But if we allow that call to have its widest meaning, it speaks to all. It is not addressed to every one that thirsteth after God, or after righteousness, or after goodness, or after holiness ; but simply to every one that thirsteth ; it speaks to every one that is not absolutely contented with what he has. If that be so, then it speaks to the world.
1. There are dormant thirsts. It is no proof of superiority that a savage has fewer wants than we have, for want is the open mouth into which supply comes. And you will all have
ISAIAH isi
deep in your nature desires which will for ever keep you from being blessed or at rest unless they are awakened and settled, though these desires are all unconscious. / The business of the preacher is very largely to get the people who will listen to him to recognise the fact that they do want things which they do not wish ; and that, for the perfection of their nature, the cherishing of noble longings and thirstings is needful, and that to be without this sense of need is to be without one of the loftiest prerogatives of humanity. Some of you do not want forgiveness. Many of you would much rather not have holiness. You do not want God. The promises of the gospel go clean over your heads, and are as impotent to influence you as is the wind whistling through a keyhole, because you have never been aware of the wants to which these promises correspond, and do not understand what it is that you truly require. And yet there are no desires so dormant but that their being ungratified makes a man restless. You do not want forgiveness, but you will never be happy till you get it. You do not want to be good and true and holy men, but you will never be blessed tiU you are. You do not want God, some of you, but you will be restless till you find Him. You fancy you want heaven when you are dead ; you do not want it when you are living. But until your earthly life is like the life of Jesus Christ in heaven even whilst you are on earth you will never be at rest.
f You remember the old story in the Arabian Nights of the man who had a grand palace, and lived in it quite comfortably, until somebody told him that it needed a roc's egg hanging from the roof to make it complete, and he did not know where to get that, and was miserable accordingly. We build our houses, we fancy that we are satisfied ; and then comes the stinging thought that it is not all complete yet, and we go groping, groping in the dark, to find out what it is.^
More liberty begets desire of more;
The hunger still increases with the store.*
2. But, while dormant desires have to be roused, the prophet's call is really addressed to everybody. "Where shall
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^ A. Maclaren, The Wearied Christ, p. 116.
' Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, Part I, line 519.
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we find a man who is absolutely contented, who has everything he desires to have, and nothing he would gladly get rid of, who, if only he could find a pleasant enough and feasible enough plan for accomplishing the transformation, would not wish to change anything in his outward condition, or be difierent in his inward character ? Could we choose what we were to have and what we were to be, I imagine few would choose to remain as they are. If this be so, then are we of the number of those "thirsty ones" to whom Isaiah speaks. The whole world is athirst, and the prophet's message is for every creature.