“HE began to be in want” (Luke 15:1414And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. (Luke 15:14)). Yes, for he had “spent all” that he had, not to say wasted it. Much had been committed to him, and there was nothing left.
“He began to be in want.” That was after living in pleasure for a season, after a luxurious sowing of wild oats, after lust which had brought forth sin; then want stared him in the face.
This was like Adam of old time in Eden, like the steward who had wasted his master’s goods, and like many a youth today who hopes that the pleasure which he seeks after so vehemently will endure forever. Alas, no! it is a coffer rifled all too easily, a well whose bottom can be reached all too speedily.
And then? He will reach the land where “no man gave unto him.” If to begin to be in want be bad, what must it be to go on in want for a lifetime? But God can and does speak to such, and in His mercy He takes means to bring home the prodigal sons and the starving banished ones.
Hear the story of one.
The pleasures young Mr. R. was seeking were those of human reason, the “intruding into those things which he had not seen, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind.” There are many who do likewise. They would not perchance stoop to “riotous living,” but unless the mind and intellect be subject to God, it becomes the tool of the devil and leads a man as far astray as do coarser pleasures. All the scientific theories about creation (evolution, Darwinism, and the like), the unbelief in miracles, in inspiration, in atonement—what is all this but man setting his reason in the place of God? This will lead to the same land—the place where want begins and reigns, where no man gives, a thirsty land where the fresh springs that are in God’ are unknown.
Mr. R. was there, though as yet perhaps he did not know it. He was gentlemanly and companionable, related to a dignitary of the Church, connected with the most evangelical, but he was an unbeliever and away from God.
Faith, alas, is not hereditary. God must speak to a soul Himself, and He does so often in the most unlooked-for ways, and He knows how to bring to naught the pride of man.
Mr. R. was in the habit of making periodical visits to friends in a country town, friends who were otherwise minded to himself. He used to distress them greatly by saying that the only use of Sunday to him was to write his letters and make up his accounts, for in those somewhat ancient times Sunday was not generally a day for dinner parties or bands or excursions as now. So they used to attend church, and he used to retire to his room and his desk.
One Sunday, when thus employed, he was startled by a loud sound as of a rap on the desk. He could not account for it, and presently returned to his occupation. To his surprise in a few minutes another and a louder rap was heard quite close to his hand. This time he sprang from his seat and closed his desk. He had the conviction that God had spoken to him. He abandoned his whilom mode of life, took to reading his Bible, and in due time became a believing and earnest Christian.
His friends could rejoice for and with him now: “they began to be merry” (Luke 15:2424For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. (Luke 15:24)). They began what is to continue in heaven and never to end. What a contrast! “Began to be in want”! “Began to be merry”!
In the later years of his life it became Mr. R.’s habit to take lodgings once a year in that same country town so as to be near his old friends. On the last occasion the day came for his departure, and he was to catch the boat-train for the Continent. As the hour drew near his landlady went to his door and knocked. “Sir, the time is going, you must not miss your train.” No answer. She opened the door. Mr. R. was upon his knees, and she withdrew. At the last moment she went again, and induced him to go to the station, but it was with a lingering step which struck her.
He caught his train and traveled in a first-class compartment with two gentlemen. Arrived at the terminus they called the guard. “Guard, this gentleman looks so pale we think he must be ill.” He was dead. God who had spoken to him in early life, and whose voice he had “perceived,” had called His servant home. He was ready. He had left the testimony that he feared God—his last known act had been prayer, and he departed to be “with Christ which is far better.”
Reader, which beginning do you choose? Your want, if you are not satisfied, may end now, today, if only you will come to the “One who for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich.” Receive Him as your Saviour, and you will begin a joy that will never end, and end a want that otherwise will have no ending.
H. L. H.