NOT in money. A gentleman approached Baron Ai Rothschild, and said to him, “I would like to enter into partnership with you.” The rich man replied, “Would you? I very much doubt it. How would you like to sleep with half a dozen pistols under your pillow every night?”
A man in New York, worth £2,000,000, threw himself before a railway train in order to end his misery. No wonder that the word “miser” was chosen to describe a man who seeks to make money his joy and happiness, but instead finds misery. You only have to add the letter “y” to “miser,” and you learn cause and effect.
Not in fame. Horace Walpole made fame his object, and acquired it as a politician; but at a comparatively early age he was worn out physically and mentally, disgusted with politics, social prominence, and the like. His example could be multiplied many times.
Who has not read the dying wail of Cardinal Wolsey—"If I had served my God as faithfully as I have served my king, He would not have forsaken me in my old age.”
Or, the death of the great Napoleon? The man, who once was the greatest conqueror of his day, died a miserable captive on a lonely rock in the South Atlantic Ocean of a painful disease. No, the answer, impartial history will give you, is that happiness emphatically is not to be found in fame.
Not in pleasure. Hear the testimony of Madame Pompadour, the daughter of a butcher, distinguished by the beauty of her person, the brilliancy of her accomplishments, and the fascination of her manners —the notorious mistress of that most profligate King of France, Louis XV. Loaded with the curses of the nation, at the early age of forty-two she died. Her confession is as follows: “I am perfectly wretched. I have furnished my house in Belle Vue from top to bottom in the most elegant style. It gave me a little pleasure two or three days, and then I was tired of it. The king is very fond of me, and the courtiers are very deferential to me, but nothing makes me happy. The fact is, I am dead before my time.”
What need to go further? It would only be to run the gamut of human fever and disappointment and misery. Man can find no lasting satisfaction in anything this world can offer. He has fallen. He is a sinner. He has a future—an eternal future.
Where, then, can true happiness be found? Only in the true knowledge of God. But God is only made known by and in Christ.
We are reminded here of Herschel, the Hanoverian musician and astronomer. He was received into favour by George III., but on making his acquaintance the king said a little matter must first be settled between them. It appears that Herschel had been a deserter from the Hanoverian army, of which George III. as King of Hanover was head. The king handed Herschel a pardon, and thus the way was cleared for the king to speak freely and kindly to Herschel, take him under his patronage, and show him favours.
So before the sinner can be received into favour by God, where alone true happiness can be found, he must receive a pardon.
Thank God, He can give this to the repentant sinner righteously, for the Lord Jesus has died for sinners on the cross. God can now “be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:2626To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)).
Friend, will you not apply for the pardon?
When E. Payson Hammond, an earnest Christian preacher, lay dying, the doctor testified that his excessive joy in the prospect of soon seeing his Saviour would have to abate before it could be realised. His very joy sustained him in life. Where can you find such a testimony in regard to an unbeliever?
“I sighed for rest and happiness,
I yearned for them, not Thee;
But, while I passed my Saviour by,
His love laid hold of me.
Now none but Christ can satisfy,
None other Name for me
There’s love, and life, and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in Thee.”
May God lead the reader to a true knowledge of Himself through faith in Christ Jesus. A. J. P.