They war and fight,
and have not, because they ask not. They ask, and have not, because they
ask amiss, to consume it on their lusts; and so they spend their lives
without peace, longing, struggling for things outside them, the greater
part of which they do not get, because the getting them is not in their
own power, and which if they got they could not keep, for they can carry
nothing away with them when they die, neither can their pomp follow them.
And therefore does man walk in a vain shadow, and disquiet himself in
vain, looking for peace where it is not to be found--in everything and
anything save in his own heart, in duty, and in God.
But happy are they who are discontented with the divine discontent,
discontented with themselves. Happy are they who hunger and thirst after
righteousness, that they may become righteous and good men. Happy are
they who have set their hearts on the one thing which is in their own
power--being better than they are, and doing better than they do. Happy
are they who long and labour after the true riches, which neither mobs
nor tyrants, man nor devil, prosperity nor adversity, or any chance or
change of mortal life, can take from them--the true and eternal wealth,
which is the Spirit of God.
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