The Soul’s Hunger and Thirst


Ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink.--Hag. 1: 6.

There is an old story that tells of a knight and his company who were traveling through a desert. They suddenly beheld a castle, into which they were invited and hospitably welcomed. A feast was spread before them, and each man ate and drank his fill. But as soon as they left the enchanted halls, they were as hungry as before they sat at the magic table.

In this story is seen a picture of the kind of lives many people live. They spend their lives going from one fairy castle to another, seeking to satisfy their hunger and thirst at magic tables spread with earthly goods and delights; but, again and again, they come away with the same gnawing hunger and the same torturing thirst. “It is as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite” (Isa. 29: 8).

Byron feasted abundantly at the world’s magic tables. Hear his testimony: “Though gay companions o’er the bowl, Dispel awhile the sense of ill, Though pleasure fill the maddened soul, The heart, the heart is lonely still.” And at last he said, “My days are in the yellow leaf, The flower and fruit of love are gone--The worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine alone.”

The things that relate to the earthly side of our lives are not to be despised. The trouble is, men forget the spiritual side of their lives and seek to make life a mere revel and banquet. The result is perpetual unrest and discontent.

You cannot stay the hungers of your heart with worldly things. You cannot quench your soul’s thirst out of the world’s “golden empty cups.” Leave God out of the cup, and no matter how rich the portion it contains of earthly goods and delights, the result is unsatisfied hunger and thirst.

There is no fact stranger or more tragically in the histories of men and women than that they do not learn by a thousand disappointments that worldly things will not avail to make them satisfied, restful and happy.

God is the soul’s meat and drink. He alone satisfies the soul’s hunger and thirst.