(Preached before the Queen.)
Psalm xxxvi. 7, 8, 9. How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God!
therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of
thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of
thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy
pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light
shall we see light.
This is a great saying. So great that we shall never know,
certainly never in this life, how much it means.
It speaks of being satisfied; of what alone can satisfy a man. It
speaks of man as a creature who is, or rather ought to be, always
hungering and thirsting after something better than he has, as it is
written: 'Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after
righteousness; for they shall be filled.' So says David, also, in
this Psalm.
I say man ought to be always hungering and thirsting for something
better. I do not mean by that that he ought to be discontented.
Nothing less. For just in as far as a man hungers and thirsts after
righteousness and truth, he will hunger and thirst after nothing
else. As long as a man does not care for righteousness, does not
care to be a better man himself, and to see the world better round
him, so long will he go longing after this fine thing and that,
tormenting himself with lusts and passions, greediness and
covetousness of divers sorts; and little satisfaction will he get
from them. But, when he begins to hunger and thirst after
righteousness, that heavenly and spiritual hunger destroys the old
carnal hunger in him. He cares less and less to ask, What shall I
eat and drink, wherewithal shall I be clothed?--Or how shall I win
for myself admiration, station, and all the fine things of this
world?--What he thinks of more and more is,--How can I become better
and more righteous? How can I make my neighbours better likewise?
How the world? As for the good things of this life, if they will
make me a better man, let them come. If not, why should I care so
much about them? What I want is, to be righteous like God,
beneficent and good-doing like God.
That is the man of whom it is written, that he shall be satisfied
with the plenteousness of God's house, God's kingdom; for with God
is the fountain of life.
Again, as long as a man has no hunger and thirst after truth, he is
easily enough interested, though he is not satisfied. He reads,
perhaps, and amuses his fancy, but he does no more. He reads again,
really to instruct his mind, and learns about this and that: but he
does not learn the causes of things; the reasons of the chances and
changes of this world; and so he is not satisfied; he takes up
doctrines, true ones, perhaps, at secondhand out of books and out of
sermons:, without having had any personal experience of them; and
so, when sickness or sorrow, doubt or dread, come, they do not
satisfy him. Then he longs--he ought at least to long--for truth.
He thirsts for truth. O that I could know the truth about myself;
about my fellow-creatures; about this world. What am I really?
What are they? Where am I? What can I know? What ought I to do?
I do not want secondhand names and notions. I want to be sure.
That is the divine thirst after truth, which will surely be
satisfied. He will drink of the pleasure of true knowledge, as out
of an overflowing river; and the more he knows, the more he will be
glad to know, and the more he will find he can know, if only he
loves truth for truth's own sake; for, as it is written, in God's
light shall that man see light.
With God is the well of life; and in his light we shall see light.
The first is the answer to man's hunger after righteousness, the
second answers to his thirst after truth.
With God is the well of life. There is the answer. Thou wishest to
be a good man; to live a good life; to live as a good son, good
husband, good father, good in all the relations of humanity; as it
is written, 'And Noah was a just man, and perfect in his
generations; and Noah walked with God.' Then do thou walk with God.
For in him is the life thou wishest for. He alone can quicken thee,
and give thee spirit and power to fulfil thy duty in thy generation.
Is not his Spirit the Lord and Giver of life--the only fount and
eternal spring of life? From him life flows out unto the smallest
blade of grass beneath thy feet, the smallest gnat which dances in
the sun, that it may live the life which God intends for it. How
much more to thee, who hast an altogether boundless power of life;
whom God has made in his own likeness, that thou mayest be called
his son, and live his life, and do, as Christ did, what thou seest
thy heavenly Father do.
Thou feelest, perhaps, how poor and paltry thine own life is,
compared with what it might have been. Thou feelest that thou hast
never done thy best. When the world is praising thee most, thou art
most ashamed of thyself. Thou art ready to cry all day long, 'I
have left undone that which I ought to have done;' till, at times,
thou longest that all was over, and thou wert beginning again in
some freer, fuller, nobler, holier life, to do and to be what thou
hast never done nor been here; and criest with the poet--
'Tis life, whereof my nerves are scant;
'Tis life, not death, for which I pant;
More life, and fuller, that I want.
Then have patience. With God is the fount of life. He will refresh
and strengthen thee; and raise thee up day by day to that new life
for which thou longest. Is not Holy communion his own pledge that
he will do so? Is not that God's own sign to thee, that though thou
canst not feed and strengthen thine own soul, he can and will feed
and strengthen it; and feed it--mystery of mysteries--with himself;
that God may dwell in thee, and thou in God. And if God and Christ
live in thee, and work in thee to will and to do of their own good
pleasure, that shall be enough for thee, and thou shall be
satisfied.
And just so, again, with that same thirst after truth. That, too,
can only be satisfied by God, and in God. Not by the reading of
books, however true; not by listening to sermons, however clever;
can we see light: but only in the light of God. Know God. Know
that he is justice itself, order itself, love itself, patience
itself, pity itself. In the light of that, all things will become
light and bright to thee. Matters which seemed to have nothing to
do with God, the thought of God will explain to thee, if thou
thinkest aright concerning God; and the true knowledge of him will
be the key to all other true knowledge in heaven and earth. For the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a good
understanding have all they that do thereafter. Must it not be so?
How can it be otherwise? For in God all live and move and have
their being; and all things which he has made are rays from off his
glory, and patterns of his perfect mind. As the Maker is, so is his
work; if, therefore, thou wouldest judge rightly of the work,
acquaint thyself with the Maker of it, and know first, and know for
ever, that his name is Love.
Thus, sooner or later, in God the Father's good time, will thy
thirst for truth be satisfied, and thou shalt see the light of God.
He may keep thee long waiting for full truth. He may send thee by
strange and crooked paths. He may exercise and strain thy reason by
doubts, mistakes, and failures; but sooner or later, if thou dost
not faint and grow weary, he will show to thee the thing which thou
knewest not; for he is thy Father, and wills that all his children,
each according to their powers, should share not only in his
goodness, but in his wisdom also.
Do any of you say, 'These are words too deep for us; they are for
learned people, clever, great saints?' I think not.
I have seen poor people, ignorant people, sick people, poor old
souls on parish pay, satisfied with the plenteousness of God's
house, and drinking so freely of God's pleasure, that they knew no
thirst, fretted not, never were discontented. All vain longings
after this and that were gone from their hearts. They had very
little; but it seemed to be enough. They had nothing indeed, which
we could call pleasure in this world; but somehow what they had
satisfied them, because it came from God. They had a hidden
pleasure, joy, content, and peace.
They had found out that with God was the well of life; that in God
they lived and moved, and had their being. And as long as their
souls lived in God, full of the eternal life and goodness, obeying
his laws, loving the thing which he commanded, and desiring what he
promised, they could trust him for their poor worn-out dying bodies,
that he would not let them perish, but raise them up again at the
last day. They knew very little; but what they did know was full of
light. Cheerful and hopeful they were always; for they saw all
things in the light of God. They knew that God was light, and God
was love; that his love was shining down on them and on all around
them, warming, cheering, quickening into life all things which he
had made; so that when the world should have looked most dark to
them, it looked most bright, because they saw it lightened up by the
smile of their Father in heaven.
O may God bring us all to such an old age, that, as our mortal
bodies decay, our souls may be renewed day by day; that as the life
of our bodies grows cold and feeble, the life of our souls may grow
richer, warmer, stronger, more useful to all around us, for ever and
ever; that as the light of this life fades, the light of our souls
may grow brighter, fuller, deeper; till all is clear to us in the
everlasting light of God, in that perfect day for which St. Paul
thirsted through so many weary years; when he should no more see
through a glass darkly, or prophesy in part, and talk as a child,
but see face to face, and know even as he was known.