ing more. What rest, what peace, can one enjoy in the midst of ceaseless cries which he cannot satisfy? Could a mother know peace surrounded by children asking for bread which she could not give them?
This, then, is one of the greatest torments of the wicked. "They hunger and thirst," says the prophet, "and their souls faint within them."[1] Having placed their happiness in earthly things, they hunger and thirst for them as the object of all their hope. The fulfilment of desire, says Solomon, is the tree of life. [2] Consequently, there is nothing more torturing to the wicked than their unsatisfied desires. And the more their desires are thwarted the stronger and more intense they become. Their lives, then, are passed in wretched anxiety, constant war raging within them. The prodigal is a forcible illustration of the unhappy lot of the wicked. Like him, they separate themselves from God and plunge into every vice. They abuse and squander all that God has given them. They go into a far country where famine rages; and what is this country but the world, so far removed from God, where men hunger with desires which can never be satisfied, where, like ravenous wolves, they are constantly seeking more? And how do such men understand the duties of life? They recognize no higher duty than that of feeding swine. To satisfy the animal within them, to feed their swinish appetites, is their only aim. If you would be convinced of this study the life of
