“Behold, all is vanity.” 
              — Ecclesiastes 1:14

Nothing can satisfy the entire man but the Lord’s love and the Lord’s
own self. Saints have tried to anchor in other roadsteads, but they
have been driven out of such fatal refuges. Solomon, the wisest of men,
was permitted to make experiments for us all, and to do for us what we
must not dare to do for ourselves. Here is his testimony in his own
words: “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 labour: and this was my portion of all my
labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and
on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity
and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.” “Vanity
of vanities, all is vanity.” What! the whole of it vanity? O favoured
monarch, is there nothing in all thy wealth? Nothing in that wide
dominion reaching from the river even to the sea? Nothing in Palmyra’s
glorious palaces? Nothing in the house of the forest of Lebanon? In all
thy music and dancing, and wine and luxury, is there nothing?
“Nothing,” he says, “but weariness of spirit.” This was his verdict
when he had trodden the whole round of pleasure. To embrace our Lord
Jesus, to dwell in his love, and be fully assured of union with
him-this is all in all. Dear reader, you need not try other forms of
life in order to see whether they are better than the Christian’s: if
you roam the world around, you will see no sights like a sight of the
Saviour’s face; if you could have all the comforts of life, if you lost
your Saviour, you would be wretched; but if you win Christ, then should
you rot in a dungeon, you would find it a paradise; should you live in
obscurity, or die with famine, you will yet be satisfied with favour
and full of the goodness of the Lord.

On this day...

• Sacrifice that leads to death - 2011
• Dads, Five Ways to Make Your Words Count - 2011
• How to Glorify God in Your Decision-Making - 2011
• How to Glorify God in Your Decision-Making - 2011
• How I Make a Moral Choice - 2011
• Praying in the Closet and in the Spirit - 2010
• Help the Children Love the Different People - 2010
• We Are In The World, Not Of The World - 2009
• Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers - 2009
• Athanasian Creed - 2009