The Wants of Man
Revelation vii. 16 v. “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.”
My hope for above is my poverty below. If want be unsatisfied desire, man is the poorest being in the world. He is the only being in the world that has less than he needs. Our Lord says that the other creatures of the earth have more than they need. “How many hired servants of my Father have bread and to spare!” There is a superfluity of riches in the creation below man; it has bread and to spare. Why has the bird such fair plumage, when it has so little sense of beauty? Why has it so sweet a song, when its ear for music is so low? Why has it so powerful a wing, when its aspirations are so small? It is decked with a loveliness it sees not; it is gifted with a melody it hears not; it is endowed with a freedom it appreciates not. It is one of nature’s millionaires; its possessions are above its wants. But with thee, my soul, it is otherwise; thy wants are beyond thy possessions. Thou hast the sense of beauty without the plumage; thou hast the ear for music without the song; thou hast the desire for wings without the power of flight. Thou art not suited to thy surroundings; thou hast a large pitcher and a tiny well. Thy love is long amid the fleeting, broad amid the bounded, high amid the insignificant, deep amid the pools. Thy swallows have no summer, thy larks have no dawn, thy eagles have no Armament, thy doves have no nest. Thou art a voice crying in the wilderness, and thy way is not prepared.
Son of Man, prepare a place for me. There are many mansions in the house of Thy Father, but none has yet taken me in. I am hungry and thirsty, I am homeless and friendless, I am footsore and weary, but no mansion has yet opened for me. All other things have places prepared for them — all but my heart. The eye has its light, and the ear has its voices, and the hand has its labours; but my heart has not yet its love. It is powerless, for want of an object; it waits imprisonment to set it free. Prepare a mansion for my heart, Thou whose name is Love. My unplaced heart is the one miracle of creation
—the only tiling that violates the law of the Father. Annul the miracle, and give me peace. Give me the harmony with my surroundings that other things enjoy. Break the solitude of my spirit in the universe of life. Find for me a Sabbath of rest amid the mornings and evenings. Build me a tower that shall reach the height of my desires — unto heaven. Send me a promised land, whose reality shall not dim the expectant vision of Moses. At the beautiful gate of Thy temple I shall hunger no more.