The Ordway new era., 1910-06-03

The serpent OF the fields. by art
And spells, Is won from harming;
But that which coils around the heart
Oh. Who hath power OF charming :?
1t will not list to wisdOm's lore,
Nor music's voice can lure II;
But there 1t stings for ever more
The soul that must endure 1t.
Byron might have. compressed and
reduced his whole life into this one
pregnant stanZa:
The frail vessel thou hast made
No hands but thine can MI;
For the waters of this world have
failed,
And am thirsty still.
King Solomon and Lord Byron are
typical characters. The world was
sounded by them to its deepest
depths and yet it utterly failed to
satisfy the lungings OF their natures.
Their experience Is the experience
Of all men. Every effort they made
to satisfy the cravings Of their ma
lures at the worlds broken cisterns
was like trying to slakc their thirst
by drinking salt water. The more
they drank the more intense did their
thirst become.
There is deep, universal, a4e-long
appetite or craving In the human soul
that the world can no more satisfy
| . l,n 1, cot ff..f f,,
the hunger OF the natural man. When
the pleasures Of the world are plucked
and ready to be appropriated, they,
like Dead Sea apples, turn TO ashes on
the lips.
But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You sieZc the flower, the bloom is
shed!
Or like the snowfall in the river,
A moment white, then gone forever.
Or like the l1orcalis race,
That fits ere you can point its place.
Or like the rainbow's lovely form,
Vanishing before the storm.
The. strcn.sung of pleasure lures
man only to destroy him on the fatal
rocks. Some years ago l had per-
sonal experience that can never be
forgotten. l was travelling across the
Sahara Desert, suffering from burn
ing thirst. Suddenly l looked out
across the sandy waste and saw u
large lake; the banks, which slopcd
gently down to the waters edge, were
covered with green grass and budding
flowers: driftwood was on the lake.
cows were wading in the waters and
birds were swooping down to drink.
"Ah!" said l. "that's the prettiest
sight that ever blessed human eyes,"
Hope was revived, the whip was ap-
piled, my camel was made to quicken
his pace. expected within an hour
to bathe my face and slake my thirst
in that enchanted lake. l pressed on
for an hour and yet the water was
seemingly as distant as when first
seen. At the expiration Of three
hours, the lake entirely disappeared
and l walked up to the fearful fact
that had been following a mirage.
ALI, my friends, in crossing the des-
ert of life, many man has followed a
mirage all the way, and never discov-
cred his fatal mistake until too late
to rctrace his steps.
The devil has taken many man
up on high mountain apart and
showed him all the Kingdoms OF the
world and the glory Of them and said:
"Fall down and worship me and will
give them all to thee," whereupon
the man bowed suppliant knee to his
Satanic Majesty, served him and paid
him homage. But in every case the
devil failed to keep his bargain. He
never delivered the goods.
Many man has served the devil
through life only to find when too
late that "rhc wages of sin is death. I"
Every human being on this earth
who has tried to satisfy his soul at
the worlds broken cisterns can say
with Byron:
O, God, the frail vcSsclthO hast made,
No hands but thine can fill;
For the waters of this world have
failed,
And am thirsty still.
Jesus, who made man knew what
was in man-he knew that this deep,
abiding, unquenchable thirst was in
the human heart; he knew that the
world had not and could not satisfy
this thirst, hence he extended this
broad and gracious invitations: "1f
any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink"
If we would see the meaning and
the bcauty of this invitation let us