“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, marvelous thought!
And he yearns for us now to be with him above.”
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 comes thronging,
Which one was e’er so dear, so kind,
So beautiful as longing?”
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