Everyone desires success, but not every one succeeds. In any line there
are certain things on which success depends. Success can be built only on
a properly and carefully laid foundation. Those who desire to be
Christians desire to be successful in the Christian life. Those who are
called to work for God desire to be successful workers. Jesus said to
Martha, “One thing is needful.” There is generally one basic principle on
which all else must be built. If this is overlooked or neglected, partial
or complete failure is certain. Many attempts are failures because of
being begun at the wrong place. In mathematics we must master the
rudiments before we can compute the orbits of the planets. In music we
must learn tones and relations of tones before we can produce the
exquisite harmonies of the master. In astronomy we must know something of
our little home-planet before we can launch out into the heart-stirring
immensities of space. Before we can rightly know God we must know
ourselves.
The animal instinctively knows that the gnawing pain in its stomach is a
hunger for food, and immediately seeks to satisfy it. But the man who does
not know himself, who does not stop to consider and analyze, feels an
unrest, a yearning, a hungering within his soul, and knows not why or what
it is. He tries worldly pleasures; but they only partially satisfy, and at
last render the case more serious than before. He tries all the remedies
that he can find for his soul-hunger, but performs no cure, simply because
he has not properly diagnosed his case. It is only when he knows that the
cause of his unrest is soul-hunger for God and the bread of life, that he
begins to try to satisfy himself properly. Women, and many of them
professors, try to satisfy this craving by decking themselves with gold
and gems and fine array, with the plumage of birds and the skins of
beasts. Men try to satisfy it in the pool-room, by plunging into the muddy
waters of the political sea, or by accumulating money and by the follies
of life. As food is the only thing that properly satisfies the hunger of
the body, so God is the only thing that satisfies the hunger of the soul.
When people come to know that this hunger is for God, they begin to search
for him if haply they may find him. The trouble is that people look at
Christianity in the abstract, as a something apart from themselves,
whereas it is a vital part of every spiritually normal man or woman. The
saying of the old philosopher, “Know thyself,” proves his wisdom. True
wisdom comes only by first understanding ourselves so as to know our
relation to other things.
One of the things that must constantly be preached to the sisters is
proper modesty and plainness of apparel. How often do we meet with those
who once were plain who now dress almost as the world! Why is it that
these thing’s are put on? Because there is a longing in the heart. They do
not understand what this longing really is nor what will satisfy it. They
interpret the unrest of soul as being a desire for these things, yet when
put on they do not satisfy.
No, sister, it is not the flowers on your hat nor the feathers nor fine
dresses, that you are really desiring. You may think it is, but only
because you can not rightly interpret your soul-cry. No, brother, it is
not that fine team nor that other eighty acres that your soul really
desires. Both your souls are crying for more of God. Give them a chance to
get what they are hungering for, and you will be surprized to find out
that you did not really want these other things after all. If you find in
you a desire, or what seems to be a desire, for anything not in accord
with spiritual prosperity, there is a real desire in your soul which you
do not realize. Sister, if you pass the millinery-store and see a display
of worldly hats and something seems to say, “Just to be honest, I should
like to have one of those,” your soul is hungry. Go home and feed it. Go
to your closet, fall upon your knees, and get a good feast of the “bread
from heaven” and “water of life,” and then go back and look in that window
again and see if there is any hunger. There is not a bit, is there? Do you
not see you were mistaken? Your soul wanted more of God, and you did not
know yourself any better than to think it was a fine hat you desired.
Or you, brother, if you feel as if you wanted people to notice you more
and say nice things about you and tell how talented you are, you are
hungry. Go and give your soul a feast of heavenly manna—not just a taste;
eat plenty, feast on it. Now come back in the crowd, and when that man
goes to praising you, it makes you feel ashamed. You did not really know
what you did want, did you?
And you who desire to be a big preacher and stir the world and be like a
mighty man of war among the people. You are getting real hungry. It will
take a lot to fill you up, but God has plenty, and you had better get to
the table quickly. When you get full, though, you will find you do not
really want to be a big preacher at all, have not the least desire to be.
Why, you will feel so small, just as if you wanted to hide behind the
cross where nobody would see you at all.
After we have a good, square meal on divine food, any sort of worldliness
will “go against our stomachs,” and we can not bear it, sight or smell.
And you there, you want to have your own way in everything, do you not?
Your judgment is so good that all the brethren must accept it and act upon
it or all the sweetness in your soul turns to vinegar right away. Go and
eat some of the “honey out of the rock.” Do not come back until you get
enough. When you get filled up once, you will wake up in the night and
catch yourself saying, “Not my will, but thine be done.”
God is what you want. Everything else is husks. You can eat husks all you
please and not get satisfied. You may get a bad case of spiritual
dyspepsia or die altogether. Better find out what you really do want, and
then “eat in plenty and be satisfied.” Do not try fine dresses and rings
and flowers and feathers and houses and lands and honors for soul-diet.
“Eat ye that which is good.” Get acquainted with yourself enough to know
that all the real desire of your heart is for godliness, and that these
longings for other things are only symptoms of your need of _more God_ and
that they will disappear at once when the soul is filled with the “bread
of life.”