Open our eyes, that we that world may see!
Open our ears, that we Thy voice may hear,
And in the spirit land may ever be,
And feel Thy presence, with us, always near.
Jones Very.
No temptation is more seductive, for the average man, than that which impels him to think that he can find his "satisfying portion" in the multiplication and enlargement of experience. The abnormal struggle for wealth which so marks our times is, for the most part, the expression of an insatiable desire to have, to good, and to see,—it is an endeavor to gratify curiosity, and feed the appetites, under the impulse of a fatuous expectation that happiness will be won thereby. The resulting indigestion and unrest are but the precursors of those yet more serious ills which led the "Preacher" of old to say, after having acquainted himself with every mortal allurement, "All is vanity and vexation of spirit." He had come to see that humanity's true enrichment is not in the increase, but in the interpretation of experience,—the discernment and utilization of its inner meaning, its true educational value. He perceived that the man of simple life, who has attained to the sage's understanding, may find in a morning's ramble, or an evening's reverie, satisfactions and joys which are quite unknown and inaccessible to those who seek them in the channels of worldly ease and privileged abundance. How often we are led to observe that while one finds delight and inspiration in the revelation of a leaf or a wayside flower, another is unmoved amid the crowded splendors of a tropical garden. While one revels in the disclosures of a bit of color, or a master's penciling, another wanders in a confused and listless weariness through the world's greatest galleries—and the difference is simply a matter of interpretation.
The complexity of modern life, the multiplicity of the things which appeal to curiosity and to discontent, and the ease with which the ends of the earth are compassed,—all these things conduce to poverty and to pettiness of soul, if insight be wanting; for while the gratifications of uncultivated sense tend to increase of appetite, there is always a corresponding decrease of satisfaction, and the inevitable outcome is a yet more marked restlessness and superficiality. Slowly but surely we are learning that the man of vision, the true poet, and he alone, is the man of wealth, and that it is his to become the world's greatest benefactor, for none others can bestow the true riches.
