THE PURPOSE OF LIFE. The question of man's chief end is the great question of the ages. Religious teachers recognize this. Philosophers seek a "summum bonum," or highest good. The multitudes strive for happiness or success. All ask, "What is the best thing to do, or get, or become?" The answers men give to this question are singularly alike in all ages. Some say: Pleasure is the one thing. Enjoy lifegratify appetite and passion to the fullest extent. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Others say that wealth, or power, or knowledge is the thing to be sought above all else; while still others hold that the highest good is a spirit superior to all lesser good, as well as evil-a stoicism indifferent alike to success and failure. The Bible recognizes man's longing for the highest good. Solomon, in the Book of Ecclesiastes, tells the story of his effort to find out "what was that good for the sons of men which they should do under heaven all the days of their life;" (2) (9) Micah declares how the Lord "hath shewed thee, O man, what is good;" Paul announces a supreme thing which, whether men eat or drink, or whatsoever they do, is at once their first duty and highest good; while Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, declares that the one good which inen should "seek first" includes all lesser good. a The Book of Ecclesiastes may be read as commentary on the words of Micah, Paul and Christ. Solomon tested, as perhaps no one else has ever done, all the auswers which men give to the great question. He tried pleasure, the gratification of appetite and passion, and said: “It is vanity." He tried wealth, and said it does not satisfy "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver." He tried learning, and said: "He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow." He was a king, and gathered "the peculiar treasure of kings," "more than all that were before him," but found it "vanity and vexation." He set forth an ideal of family comfort-a man rejoicing with the wife of his youth and surrounded by his children in peaceful old age, but said though “he beget an hundred children and live many years, and his soul be not filled with good, I say that an untimely birth is better than he." He was a stoic, indifferent to all about him, but found no comfort. He was a cynic, but warned men against cynicism. He tried every prescription of every land, and proved it a failure. After youth and manhood and old age, after pleasure and wealth and power, after study, and even after the exercise of many virtues, he wrote: "It is vanity." Pleasure is good. Honor, wealth, power, home, friends and peaceful old age all are good, but they are not the highest good. There is something for which men long, and without which they must be eternally dissatisfied. The end of Solomon's experiments and his answer to the old, old question, were: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man." Micah gives the same answer: "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Paul said: "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." And Christ declared: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things [all necessary good] shall be added unto you." This question of the ages is not a question for theologians and philosophers alone. Every man and women and child must answer it. It is a question for the school-room, the play-ground, the home, the store, the field, the office and the factory. What is the chief end of man? It is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. The highest duty and the highest blessing are one. God has put them together, and man can not put them asunder. To fear God; to seek his kingdom; to keep his commandments; to love what he loves, and to be holy as he is holy these are to glorify him, and they who glorify him will enjoy him. His service will be a delight, and communion with him the highest joy. This enjoyment will endure. He who worships pleasure enjoys it only for a little time. Riches take wings, and so do honors and power. Even friends and home are ours for a brief space, but he who glorifies God enjoys him forever. Christ promised them all that they require for this life, and in the world to come life everlasting. David said: "In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right |