The incident of Cardinal Mazarin's farewell to his collection of art treasures is told in the memoirs of Louis Henri Comte de Brienne, who says: "I was walking some days later in the new apartments of his palace. I recognized the approach of the Cardinal (Mazarin) by the sound of his slippered feet which he dragged one after the other as a man enfeebled by a mortal malady. I concealed myself behind the tapestry and heard him say, 'Il faut quitter tout cela' (I must leave all that). He stopped at every step, for he was very feeble, and casting his eye on each object that attracted him, he sighed forth as from the bottom of his heart: 'I must leave all. What pains I have taken to acquire these things! Can I leave them without regret? I shall never see them again where I am about to go.'”
"Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”
Lord Chesterfield, famous man of letters and leader of worldly fashion, a short time before his death wrote a letter in which he says: "When I reflect on all that I have seen, what I have heard, and what I have done, I can hardly persuade myself that all that frivolous hurry and bustle and pleasure of the world had any reality. I look on all that is past as one of the romantic dreams such as opium commonly gives, and I desire by no means to repeat the nauseous dose.”
"Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”
Lord Byron, the brilliant poet, said: "I woke up one morning to find myself famous." Yet he too, in the last poem that came from his pen, joins in the strain of a misspent life:
"My days are in the yellow leaf,
The flowers, the fruits of love are gone;
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone.
The fire that on my bosom preys
Is lone as some volcanic isle;
No torch is lighted at its blaze—
A funeral pile.”
"Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”
Politician, philosopher, poet, and thousands more join in the "Preacher's" cry. Through Adam we all became heirs to a guilty conscience and a dissatisfied heart. Sad fruits of departure from God. But God proposes in the gospel to meet both: in the work of Christ for the conscience, and the love of Christ for the heart.
Hear from His own lips His words to a poor weary Samaritan woman at Sychar's well: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." John 4:13, 1413Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:13‑14).
Again: "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." John 7:37, 3837In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:37‑38).
Eternal realities from God Himself! All that is under the sun is VANITY and must pass away. Only that which is in His keeping will endure throughout the endless ages.
Have you put your trust in the Man in the glory? He died for you; and above the sun He now lives for you. We beg you to commit the keeping of your precious soul to Him, as unto a faithful Creator and everlasting Savior. True happiness lies only in the knowledge of God. He alone can satisfy your longing heart; only the Savior's blood applied to your guilty conscience can cleanse and set you free. Then how blessed to know that nothing "can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"!
Herein is love, not that we
loved God, but that He
loved us, and sent His
Son to be the propitiation
for our sins.”