IT was said recently by one of the most notable statesmen in Europe that, “In my long life I have rarely been happy; if I were to figure the total of the rare moments of happiness that I have ever enjoyed I would find, perhaps, in all twenty-four hours.”
It was a bad but an honest confession from one who has created an empire, and whose words were listened to with awe and pleasure. What an awful critique on all that men set their hearts upon, and that they seem to prize most dearly!
Think of this, my reader, coming from the lips of one who had almost scaled the very highest rung of the ladder of earthly ambition and worldly fame. He was like Joseph in Egypt, to whom the king said, “Only in the throne shall I be greater than thou.” It is another proof amongst the many to the utter vanity of all that is here, and of the total incompetency of anything in this world to yield solid peace or lasting satisfaction.
When the celebrated Irish orator, Edmund Burke, was nearing his end, and feeling the hollowness of everything in this world, he exclaimed, “What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!”
Common experience teaches us, however much some may try to discard or gloss over the fact, that this world can yield no comfort in life, and no happiness in death. Alas! on a death-bed how many, to judge by the expressions that have come from their lips, seem as if they were goaded with goads, or as if the fire of scorpions were burning in their breasts, as they traverse their past history. A celebrated poet is said to have died of wretchedness, yet it is said he
“Drank every cup of joy, heard every trump
Of fame, drank early, deeply drank, drank drafts
That common millions might have quenched; then
Died of thirst, because there was no more to drink.”
Honest reader, have you not found that there is a sting in the very mirth of this world? Haven’t you found that when you put forth your hand to grasp some apparent prize which carried joy in prospect that when you gained the prize it was like a bubble: it burst the moment you put your hand to it? Have you never returned home after a night of frolic or festivity, and when you retired into the quietness of your bedroom, or awoke in the early hours of the morning, and reflected on all that you had passed through, have you not felt unsatisfied and dejected, and longed for something more satisfying than anything this world can afford? Ah! how true the poet’s words are―
“There’s nothing true but heaven.”
Forgive if I ask you, Are you happy? Can you be happy if you are still pursuing the vanities of this world? Can you be happy if you know not your sins forgiven, and if the fear of death is upon you? Can you be happy with the mountain of God’s wrath above you, and a yawning hell beneath you? Can you be happy if your soul is not in the enjoyment of God’s favor in Christ?
If you are not happy, you may be. The gospel of God’s grace proposes to make you happy here; not only hereafter, but here, in this world. It proposes to satisfy your heart supremely now. It proposes to make you independent of everything that men seek to quench thirst at. It proposes to fill your soul with true, deep, lasting, and divine happiness, so that you will be not only rendered perfectly independent of every creature stream, but that you yourself will be able in the power of what you receive to make others happy. “Out of his belly (inward parts) shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:3838He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)).
What could surpass such a proposal! No society or no other religion ever held out such an offer. True Christianity, which is simply Christ filling the heart, emancipates, ennobles, enriches, and elevates the human character as nothing else can.
Now, to be happy in this world there are two things which every one needs, and without them no one can be happy. Men require their conscience cleared from all sense of guilt, so that they can enter God’s presence without fear, and their heart to be thoroughly satisfied with an object outside themselves so that they can afford to smile on anything this world might offer them.
The work of Christ can do the one, and the person of Christ the other. Christ, by His finished work, perfectly and eternally glorified God about the whole question of sin. “He was made sin for us.” By His death and blood-shedding He has made a full and sufficient atonement for all our sins. Justice asks no more. The evidence of God’s full satisfaction is that He raised Christ from amongst the dead and set Him at His own right hand. He lives now to show His work complete. By that finished work alone, without deeds or merit on our part, the conscience of the repentant sinner is purged, and the one who believes is justified from all charge of guilt. “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” “And by Him (Jesus) all that believe are justified from all things.”
How blessed to know also that the One through whom we are justified lives in heaven for God’s boundless satisfaction. All fullness dwells in Him. God is now finding His supreme delight and joy in the Son of His love. He has called us who believe to share His own deep joy in Him. In giving us His Son He has given us all things in Him. The father’s joy in our reception is greater than anything we can ever know. The thought of this ought to enhance our joy. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” P. W.