of one class of men than of
another, or that while devotedly pursued by one nation are not despised
across the frontier, or that do not become antiquated and obsolete in
this century though considered essential in the last. But among these
few things is the provision Christ makes for our spiritual well-being.
It is like the supply of our deep natural desires and common appetites,
in which men resemble one another from age to age, and by which they
recognise their common humanity. All the world round, you may find wells
whose water you could not say was different from what you daily use, at
any rate they quench your thirst as well. You could not tell what
country you were in nor what age by the taste of the water from a living
well. And so what God has provided for our spiritual life bears in it no
peculiarities of time or place; it addresses itself with equal power to
the European of to-day as it did to the Asiatic during our Lord's own
lifetime. Men have settled down by hundreds and by fifties, they are
grouped according to various natures and tastes, but to all alike is
this one food presented. And this, because the want it supplies is not
fictitious, but as natural and veritable a want as is indicated by
hunger or thirst.

We must beware then of looking with repugnance on what Christ calls us
to, as if it were a superfluity that may reasonably be postponed to more
urgent and essential demands; or as if He were introducing our nature
to some region for which it was not originally intended, and exciting
within us spurious and fanciful desires which are really alien to us as
human beings. This is a common thought. It is a common thought that
religion is not an essential but a luxury. But in point of fact all that
Christ calls us to, perfect reconcilement with God, devoted service of
His will, purity of character,--these are the essentials for us, so that
until we attain them we have not begun to live, but are merely nibbling
at the very gate of life. God, in inviting us to these things, is not
putting a strain on our nature it can never bear. He is proposing to
impart new strength and joy to our nature. He is not summoning us to a
joy that is too high for us, and that we can never rejoice in, but is
recalling us to that condition in which alone we can live with comfort
and health, and in which alone we can permanently delight. If we cannot
now desire what Christ offers, if we have no appetite for it, if all
that He spe