“Death proves the folly of all human wisdom and foresight, of all human grandeur”—a common observation, little-acted on, but always true. As it is said of wisdom, “death and destruction have heard the fame thereof with their ears.” They cannot give positive wisdom, but they can negatively show that only what does not belong to mortal man has any value.
Man establishes his family, perpetuates his name, but he is gone: nothing stays the hand of death. Ransom from that is out of man’s power. There is a morning coming when the righteous will have the upper hand of those who seem wise as regards this world. Death feeds on these, or as neglectors of God, they are subjected to the righteous when His judgment comes. But the power of God in whom the righteous trust is above the power of death. But further, Christ having died, the Christian’s connection with this world has ceased, save as a pilgrim through it. He has the sentence of death in himself. He knows no man after the flesh, no, not even Christ. His associations with the world are closed, save as Christ’s servant in it. He reckons himself dead. He is crucified with Christ, yet lives; but it is Christ lives in Him, and he lives the life he lives in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him, so that he is delivered from this present world.
Oh, the folly of laying up and making oneself great and counting on a future in a world where death reigns and in the things to which its power applies.
Man being in honor abides not. How difficult, even if happy and heavenly minded in Christ as to one’s own joys, not to look upon the things that are seen, to think that the wisdom and talents and success and approval of men is simply nothing, the food of death; and that all the moral question lies behind, save so far as these may have deceived men! The saint has to watch still, not to be afraid when success accompanies those who do not accept the cross.
We await God’s judgment of things in power; we exercise it in conscience. There is no divine understanding in the man whose heart is in the glory of the world. Men will praise him. How well he has got on, settled his children, raised himself in his position. The fairest names will be given to it. He has no understanding. His heart is in what feeds death, and that death weighs it.
All the motives of the world are weighed by death. After all, in them man is only as the beasts that perish, with more care. I feel what a solemn witness and word this is for every class. Is it possible, reader, to call it in question? Is it not true? Suffer a fellow passenger on life’s great highway to ask you with real concern and affection and earnest desire for your everlasting interest, what are you living for? Whither are you hastening? Is your heart in the glory of the world? If so, there is no divine understanding in you. Have you never read the scripture which saith, “The world passeth away and the lust thereof” (See 1 John 2:1717And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 John 2:17))? Oh that your eyes might be opened as to this now; a man who had fuller and more extensive means of proving what all under the sun was worth, thus expressed himself:
“I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits; I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees; I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me; I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces; I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments and that of all sorts. 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 labor; and this was my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun” (Eccl. 2:4-114I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: 5I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: 6I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: 7I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: 8I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. 9So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. 10And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor: and this was my portion of all my labor. 11Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 2:4‑11)).
What a record! and remember well, that it was while Solomon was in possession of all that he pronounced it vanity and vexation of spirit. You will often hear those who have lost it all say so, but Solomon the king said it, when he had it all in his possession! Ah yes, it could not satisfy, there is the secret of the whole matter, the heart is too large and the passing world too small. But, reader, there is One who can satisfy and fill your heart, even Him whose precious blood cleanseth from all sin; only trust in Him and His atoning work and all will be well. Are you, my reader, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the once crucified, but now risen and glorified Lord and Savior? If this is happily the case, allow me to ask you, are your associations with the world closed by Christ’s death, save as His servant in it? Have you learned that as a Christian, you are thus described in the words of scripture: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (see Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20))? How blessed to have great in our eyes Himself who hung on that cross: and to see the world that crucified Him in its true character in that cross; to glory in His cross, happy by its means to be dead to the world, to have it ended, crucified, put to shame for the heart—
“His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spread o’er His body on the tree;
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.”