And now, what about the highest kind of life? What about the moral and spiritual life? I dare say that Isaiah had all life in his mind when he wrote these words. The Bible dispenses with petty refinements and subdivisions of things, that we plague ourselves with. The Bible says compendiously, God is the giver of all life." So you may be sure, that Isaiah was thinking mainly of the-highest form of life, the spiritual. That "shall blossom as the rose", when Messiah should come. What is it? Is it the pale, ghostly unreal thing, it is so often taken tobe? No. To find out what it is, we have only to turn to the definition of life, that I qitoted from Professor Thomson's. book. How does he define it? I will read it again: Life is a kind of activity; living creatures tend to be restless, seeking out places where they can exert themselves fully." That is it. Physical life in all living creatures is an "activity" towards environment; mental life is an "activity" towards the world of the underlying fundamental things that we chose to neglect, but which we shall all have to face some day. Take an illustration. There are young men and maidens with a proligious "activity" towards swimming. They seem to enjoy the swimming bath all day on Sundays. Being spiritual is having this same "activity" towards God and eternal things as these enthusiasts to swimming. David had it, "The Lord is my light and my salvation"; Paul had it, "For me to live is Christ." Wesley had it. Mr. Augustine Birrell says of him, that Wesley knew well enough that if he had taken his abilities into the political market, be could have had any position he liked in England. He could have been Prime Minister, for he belonged to the Wellesley family, a family of immense ability, as the Duke of Wellington showed. But Wesley had "felt his heart strangely London. And he knew it was God warmed" in a little meeting
who had visited him and saved him. And he could not rest till jhe had gone all over the British Isles telling men about it, and beseeching them to receive the same blessing. That is being spiritual. He" left only two silver tea-spoons!) But what did that matter? He had found the "pearl of great price.'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.