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What a lamentable history might be written of human lives that would be correctly described as unsuccessful searches! Who, save the Omniscient One, can tell how many have lived and toiled, have struggled and suffered, in search of a goal which they never reached? - it may have been in business, or in the domain of the affections, or in the pursuit of art or of science, or in politics, or in exploration on land or sea. It is a thought of relief and comfort that no human life need be a failure - none, at least, on which the light of Divine truth has shone. It is also pleasant to think that the higher we aim the likelier we are to reach our mark. He who seeks satisfaction on the lower and grosser levels is most likely to fail; but he whose aspiration is toward wisdom and worth, toward goodness and God, is a seeker that will find -

I. THE TRUE QUEST OF A HUMAN HEART. Solomon speaks of "following after righteousness and mercy." These two words may be taken as covering the entire field of rectitude and love, being just in all our relations, and being animated by the spirit of kindness toward all with whom we have to do. Thus understood, they point to the endeavour of the human soul to find:

1. Acceptance with the living God; for there is no happy sense of rightness or rectitude until his favour has been secured, and we feel that we stand before him as those that are true and loyal, his faithful subjects, his reconciled children.

2. Purity of heart and life - deliverance from the power and bondage of sin, of the evil forces which stir within and which play around the soul.

3. A course of honesty and equity in the sight of man; such a regulation of conduct as will result in doing to others as we would that they should do to us, walking, along the path which brings no regrets and no reproaches.

4. A heart of kindness; nourishing within ourselves the prevailing feeling of considerateness for others; the blessed faculty of forgetting our own personal tastes and preferences and passing interests in order to remember the wants and well-being of our friends and our fellow men; the mental and spiritual habit of sympathizing with sorrow and succouring need with an open and a willing hand.

II. THE WAY TO THE GOAL. We who have learnt of Christ need not miss our way; we may, and (if we are in earnest) we shall, find all that we seek. We shall attain to:

1. Righteousness.

(1) Acceptance with God, being right with him by faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1, 2; Romans 8:1).

(2) The growth within us of those virtues and graces which come with the service of the holy Lord, with the study and the love of the sinless Friend, with prayer for the sanctifying influences of the indwelling Spirit.

2. Life; for he that lives thus unto God, who is becoming daily like God, who is rejoicing in the friendship of God, does live indeed. This is life - life spiritual, Divine, eternal.

3. Honour. No small share of the honour which comes from those whose esteem is worth possessing; and in the end the honor which will come from the appraising and approving Lord, when he says, "Well done!" to his faithful servants. - C.

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KJV: He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour.

WEB: He who follows after righteousness and kindness finds life, righteousness, and honor.