THE HUNGER OF THE SOUL. The soul, as well as the body and mind, requires nourishment--The want, a promise of the fulfillment--The law of unfoldment--Nourishment provided when it is needed--Provided for in the Divine Plan--The feast of good things. The Soul, as well as the body and the mind, requires nourishment. We have felt that hunger for spiritual knowledge which transcended our hunger for bread--exceeded our craving for mental sustenance. We have felt soul-hungry and knew not with what to appease it. The Soul has cried out for food. It has been fed upon the husks of the physical plane for so long that it is fairly starving for the proper nourishment. It seeks this way and that way for the Bread of Life and finds it not. It has asked this authority and that authority for information as to where this food may be had--where could be obtained the food that would nourish the Soul--but it has been given nothing but the stone of Dogma and Creeds. At last it sank exhausted and felt that perhaps there was no bread to be had. It has felt faint and weary and almost believed that all was a delusion and a will-o'-the-wisp of the mind--that there was no reality to it. It felt the chill of despair creeping over it and all seemed lost. But we must not lose sight of the fact that just as the hunger of the body implies that somewhere in the world is to be found that which will satisfy it--that just as the hunger of the mind implies that somewhere is to be found mental nourishment--so the mere fact that this soul-hunger _exists_ is a proof that somewhere there is to be found that which the Absolute has intended to satisfy it. The _want_ is the prophecy of the fulfillment. Yes, and the want and its recognition afford the means of obtaining that which will satisfy the want. When, in the course of unfoldment either on the physical, mental or spiritual plane, it becomes necessary for the well-being of the unfolding Ego to draw to itself certain things which it requires in the process of evolution, the first step toward the obtaining of that necessary thing is the consciousness of a great and pressing want--the birth of a strong desire. And then the desire grows stronger and stronger, until the Ego becomes desperate and determines to obtain the necessary thing at any cost. The obtaining of that thing becomes the prime object in life. Students of evolution realize this fact perhaps more than the rest of us. The subconsciousness of the plant or animal becomes surcharged with this great desire, and all the conscious and subconscious power of the living thing is put forth to obtain that which is necessary for its development.