The Blessedness of Longing
“God loves to be longed for, he loves to be sought;
For he sought us himself with such longing and love,
He died for desire of us, marvellous thought!
And he yearns for us now to be with him above.”
Faber.
At first thought, a condition of longing would seem to be undesirable, and far from blessedness. Longing suggests unhappiness, discontent, the absence of that peace which seems to us to represent the loftiest state of blessedness, and the highest ideal of the life of faith. To have all our longings satisfied, we are apt to regard as the most desirable human condition. Yet, when we think more deeply of it, we know that there is a blessedness in longing. Our poet’s words are true: — ’
“Of all the myriad moods of mind
That through the soul come thronging,
Which one was e’er so dear, so kind,
If this appear too strong, we have to remember that one of our Lord’s beatitudes was for those who long. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Longing is, then, a healthful state; one that has an upward look, and has the promise of spiritual enriching. Satisfaction with one’s attainments or achievements in any line, but especially in spiritual life and in personal holiness, is not an encouraging condition and may be unhealthful, even a mark of incipient decay.
Probably the most perfect piece of marble ever wrought by human hands is the statue of the Christ by Thorvvaldsen. Those who have seen it in the Metropolitan Church at Copenhagen say that the whole light of the story of the gospel seems to stream down upon them from the stone as they look at it. The artist wrought a long while upon it, and with intense joy and enthusiasm; but when at last the statue was completed, a deep melancholy settled over him. When asked the reason for this, he said that his genius was decaying.
“Here is my statue of Christ: it is the first of my works with which I have ever felt satisfied. Till now my ideal has always been far beyond what I could execute, but it is no longer so: I shall never have a great idea again.” To Thorwaldsen, satisfaction with his work was the sure indication of the limit of achievement. He felt that he would grow no more, because there was now no longing in his soul for any thing better. In all life this law applies. In the physical realm, hunger is a mark of health, and the want of appetite proclaims disease. So the mind grows through longing. The doors of knowledge are opened to the student’s eye, giving a glimpse of the boundless fields that stretch in all directions, and producing a craving, a hunger to know, which leads him to seek with eagerness for the rich treasures of wisdom. So long as this mind-hunger continues, the quest for knowledge will continue, and ever new stores will be discovered; but, whenever the hunger ceases, mental growth is at an end, and the mind has gained and passed its best achievements.
In spiritual life the same is true. There is no mood so hopeful as longing. The highest state is one of hunger and thirst, intense desire for more life, more holiness, more power, closer communion with God, more of the divine likeness in the soul. The gospel promises rest to those who come to Christ. Peace was one of the benedictions the Saviour left for his people. Contentment is one of the graces and duties enjoined upon the Christian, but spiritual hunger is not incompatible with either peace or contentment. It is not unrest; it is not anxiety or worry; it is not murmuring discontent: it is deep longing for more and ever more of all blessings, — calmer rest, sweeter peace, more perfect contentment, with richer heart-fulness of Christ, and more and more of all the gifts of the Spirit. It is depicted in the Psalms as 3n intense thirst for God, not the bitter cry of -an unforgiven soul for mercy, but the deep, passionate yearning of a loving spirit for closer, fuller, richer, more satisfying communion with God himself. We find it in the life of the greatest of the apostles, who, wherever we see
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him, on whatever radiant height, is still pressing on, with unsatisfied longing and quenchless ardor, toward loftier summits and more radiant peaks, crying ever for more intimate knowledge of Christ, and more and more of the fulness of God. The ideal Christian life is one of insatiable thirst, never pausing in any arbor of spiritual content, but ever wooed on by visions of new joys and attainments.
The absence of this longing tells of the cessation of spiritual growth. Longing is the very soul of all true prayer. If we desire nothing more, we will ask nothing more. Longing is the empty hand reached out to receive new gifts from heaven; it is the heart’s cry which God hears with acceptance, and answers with more and more; it is the ascending angel that climbs the starry ladder to return on the same radiant stairway with blessings from God’s very throne; it is the key that unlocks new storehouses of divine goodness and enrichment; it is the bold navigator that ventures out on unknown seas, and discovers new continents; it is, indeed, nothing les§ than the very life of
God in the human soul, struggling to grow up n us into the fulness of the stature of Christ. Longing is the transfiguring spirit which purifies these dull, earthly lives of ours, and changes them little by little into the divine image.
“The thing we long for, that we are
For one transcendent moment:”
and continued longing after the good lifts us up into the good. The heavenly ideal ever kept before the mind, and longed after with intensity of desire, carves itself in the soul. As Lowell says again, —
“Longing is God’s fresh, heavenward will With our poor earthward striving:
We quench it that we may be still
Content with merely living.
But, would we learn that heart’s full scope Which we are hourly wronging,
Our lives must climb from hope to hope,
The latter half of this stanza must not be overlooked. If longing is God’s angel to lead
US heavenward, we must follow where the angel leads. Mere longing opens no gates, takes us to no heights, finds no rich treasures, discovers no new worlds. Longing without action is a most unhealthy state: it is but a poor sentimental day-dreaming, which leaves the soul more empty than ever when the dreams have vanished. Longing, to be blessed, must become an inspiration. When Raphael was asked how he painted such wonderful pictures, he said,” I dream dreams, and see visions; and then I paint ‘iny dreams and my visions With marvellous skill his hand wrought into forms of radiant beauty the lovely creations of his mind: otherwise they would never have brightened the world with their wondrous splendors. Longmg not only sees the heavenly visions, but is obedient to them, and strives to realize them. It struggles up toward the excellence that shines before it: it seeks to attain the fine qualities which it admires. It is not satisfied with good resolves, but sets forward to make them come true. When Joan of Arc was asked what virtue she supposed dwelt in
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her white standard that made it so victorious, she replied, “I said to it, * Go boldly among the English,’ and then I follozved it myself T The white banner without ‘’the yily-white maid” herself would have won no victories. So, when we send out the white banners of pure and noble longings, we must be sure to follow them ourselves, if we would win the blessings which our hearts crave.
“I will not wasle one breath of life in sighing; For other ends has life been given to me, — Duties and self-devotion, daily dying Into a higher, better life with Thee, My God, with Thee.”
Every longing should at once become an active impulse in the soul. The hand should instantly be reached out to paint or carve the beauty of which the heart dreams, and for which it longs. Our longings should lead us into all paths of Christly service and all heroic duty. Mere gazing heavenward after the ascended Christ, and waiting and watching for his return, is not the way to realize the blessed
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glory. There is work to do to prepare for his coming, and he will come soonest and with greatest joy to those who do most to advance .his kingdom.