Nothing can satisfy the entire man but the Lord's love and the Lord's
own self. Saints have tried to anchor in other roadsteads, but they have
been driven out of such fatal refuges. Solomon, the wisest of men, was
permitted to make experiments for us all, and to do for us what we must not
dare to do for ourselves. Here is his testimony in his own words: "So I was
great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my
wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from
them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my
labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the
works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to
do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no
profit under the sun." "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." What! the whole
of it vanity? O favoured monarch, is there nothing in all thy wealth?
Nothing in that wide dominion reaching from the river even to the sea?
Nothing in Palmyra's glorious palaces? Nothing in the house of the forest of
Lebanon? In all thy music and dancing, and wine and luxury, is there
nothing? "Nothing," he says, "but weariness of spirit." This was his verdict
when he had trodden the whole round of pleasure. To embrace our Lord Jesus,
to dwell in His love, and be fully assured of union with Him--this is all in
all. Dear reader, you need not try other forms of life in order to see
whether they are better than the Christian's: if you roam the world around,
you will see no sights like a sight of the Saviour's face; if you could have
all the comforts of life, if you lost your Saviour, you would be wretched;
but if you win Christ, then should you rot in a dungeon, you would find it a
paradise; should you live in obscurity, or die with famine, you will yet be
satisfied with favour and full of the goodness of the Lord.
