higher the desire, the higher the life. The body can hunger and thirst, and has its own bodily cravings. The mind hungers and thirsts for knowledge, and when desire stops mental development stops. All development is along the line of desire. The mark of spiritual life is spiritual desire, a moral longing for conformity to the will of God.

There is a school of philosophy, pretentious in its claims, which disposes of the whole question of religion by extending even further the cynical counsel of Ecclesiastes, "Be not righteous overmuch." It says in some form or other, Reduce your wants: Give up all this searching after God, all this attempt to conform to an impossible ideal: Why strive after the unattainable? Why torment yourself with visions of perfection? Why not rest content in a lower plane? The unknown is the unknowable. "Be not righteous overmuch, neither make thyself overwise." It is a craven creed at the best. Even if there were no satisfaction, even if the world-weary advice of Ecclesiastes were the better policy, even if the malady of the ideal were incurable, it would still be duty to hunger after it, it would still be the best and highest for the living soul, it would still be the master-light of all our seeing. But says Christ, who walked with unclouded vision and certain tread

among spiritual things, " "They shall be filled."

The unattained is not the unattainable.

"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Filled with righteousness, that is. Instinct does not play man false here any more than in any other sphere of need. Bodily hunger means that there is food that can satisfy it. If there is a God-given instinct of the soul, that want also can be supplied. If there is spiritual hunger, there is bread of life to appease it. If there is soul-thirst, there is water of life to quench it. They shall be filled with righteousness; they shall get their desire, obtain that to which they have given their hearts. If a man's earnest desire is God, God will be all in all to him one day. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price "—without price, except the price that ye should really hunger and really thirst.

You cannot follow Jesus on the heights, if yours is the creed of the blasé sensualist, "Be not righteous overmuch." You may go far, but you cannot go there. You cannot know the blessedness of His Kingdom, unless you hunger and thirst after righteousness, with a spiritual craving that will not be

satisfied until you awake in His likeness. To all who watch and pray, with a desire more than they that watch for the morning, this is His blessed promise, "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink."

IV

WISE OVERMUCH

Neither make thyself overwise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?-ECCLESIASTES Vii. 16.

IN last sermon we saw how the author of Ecclesiastes applied the doctrine of the mean, of moderation as the secret of life, to religion, and reached the conclusion that it was best for a man to steer a middle course, and not be either over-righteous or overwicked. We saw what truth there was in the advice as satire on formal religion; and we saw its inherent falseness when contrasted with our Lord's pronouncement, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness."

Here the same doctrine of moderation is extended to the intellectual sphere that the safest course is to avoid extremes here also and to do nothing in excess. As the prudent man will not pain himself byvain efforts after perfect moral excellence but will be content to be moderately righteous and will not seek to pitch his principles to too high a tone; so also

in matters of intellect the prudent man will not shorten his days with too eager speculation and too deep thought. He knows that wisdom is good, and that it is a terrible thing to be a fool, but it is almost as bad to be too wise. The worldly-wise man is not concerned with insoluble problems, and life is full of such problems. He is more concerned about practical things, and he sees that what pays best is practical good sense, and knowledge of life, and skill in affairs. He carefully avoids touching the mysteries, and infinities, and immensities, that surround human life. He feels that such knowledge is too high for him; and besides, that is not the gate to success in the world. As in the question of holiness he shrinks from being infected by the malady of the ideal, so in the question of wisdom, he knows his limitations and will not aim at the stars. "Be not righteous overmuch, neither make thyself overwise; why shouldest thou destroy thyself?"

The truth of this advice from his own point of view is seen more clearly if we translate the word "destroy" a little more fully. The primary idea of the word is that of silence, being put to silence, and thus it came to mean to be laid waste, or destroyed. But the root meaning is to be made desolate, solitary, and was sometimes used of a lonely