The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 331

close beside the living spring. And all the bitterness is gone, if the supply is close beside us, and we may drink when we please. Apply to the soul's love. 'l'he love of Christ is the satisfying respouse. To the soul's trust. The work of Christ is the satisfying response. To the soul's ideal. The Person of Christ is the satisfying response. To the soul's anziety about the future. The promises of Christ. are the satisfying response, The soul tha.t has Christ has an upspringing well beside him; he lives close near to the waters of life.-R. T. Ver. 2.-Vain ezpenditure on things. Comp. eh. xliv. 20, "He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turnerl him aside." A very striking illustration of unsatisfyin,:; food is given by the Rev. H. Macmillan. "A strange plant, called the nardoo, grows in the deseris of Lento, Australia. Its seeds formed for months together almost the sole food of the party of explorers who, a few years ago, crossed the continent. When analyzed, the nardoo bread .was ascertained to be destitute of certain nutritious elements indispensable to the support of a European, thl)ugh an Australian savage might, for a while, fi11d it beneficial as an alterative. And thus it happened that these poor, unfor- tunate Englishmen perished of starvation, even while feeding folly day by day upon food that served to satisfy their hunger." An old author, date 1600, says," It is a thing that the Emperor Caligula is laughed at in all stories. 'l'here was a mighty navy provided, well manned and victualled, and every one expected that the whole country of Greece should have been invaded; and so it might have been; but the emperor bad another design in hand, and employed his soldiers to gather a quantity of cockle- shells and pebble-stones, and so returned home again. Just such another voyage doth almost every man make here in this world, were the particulars but truly cnst up." J. A. Alexander makes an important distinction. "Observe, too, that he does not seek to remedy the evils which arise from perverted and unsatisfied desire, by the extinction of the appetite itself---of that immortal, inextinguishable craving, which can only cease by annihilation or by full fruition. This, indeed, is a distinctive mark of true religiou, as opposed to other systems. Since the evils under which the human race is groaning may be clearly traced to the inordinate indulgence of desires after happiness, un<ler the influence of 'strong delusions' as to that which can afford it, we are not to wonder that when unassisted reason undertakes to do away with the effect, it should attempt the extirpation of the cause; and yon will find, accordingly, that every system of religion or philosophy, distinct from Christianity, either indulges, under some disguise, that perversion of man's natural desire after happiness which makes h;m wretched, or affects lo cure it by destroying the de~ire itself." "While one voice cries to the bewildered ~inner,' Cease to hunger, cease to thirst;' and another from an opposite 'direction bids him 'Eat and drink; for to-morrow we die ; ' the voice of God and of the ~oapel is, ' Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?' " I. SooL-BUNGER 0AN NEVER BE SATISFIED WITH THINGS. It is easy to confuse the soul's hunger with the bodily cry for pleasure, the mental cry for knowledge, the society cry for place and wealth, or the restbetic cry for the beautiful. Men n·ndily enough mistake their own longings, their own unrest. There is much that we have not, and we think the craving is to get what others enjoy. Men need to have tnmsl,,ted for them their own restlessness and desire. Angustine does it. " Mo.n was made for God, and co.n find no rest till he finds rest in him." The hymn does it- " My heart is pnineil, nor co.n it be At rest till it finds rest in thee." Things can never rest and satisfy souls. Angels cannot feed on man's bread. Things can satisfy some things in man-his taste, his passions, his sentiments-but not the man himself. They who have had the most of the good in things that this world can command have complained most deeply of the yawning and yearning of their unsatis- fied eoula. "If a man ask a fish, will ye give him a atone? n If a man wants love, wh&t good is it to give him gold, or fame, or pleasure? The gains and honours and so-called "good" of this world are not only brief in their duration, but unsuited, in their very nature, even while they last, to satisfy the wants of an immortal spirit. II. BouL-HUNGEB OAN ONLY BE B"TlSFlED IN A PERSON. 'rherefore Jesus said," I am  342 TBE BOOK OF THE PROPlIET ISAIAll. [en. t.v. 1-18.