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Morning and Evening

December 2, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Behold, all is vanity." — Ecclesiastes 1:14 · KJV

Nothing can satisfy the whole man but the Lord's love and the Lord's own self. Saints have tried to anchor in other harbors, 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 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 favored monarch, is there nothing in all your 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 your music and dancing, your 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 to be fully assured of union with Him — this is all in all. Dear reader, you need not try other forms of life 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 Savior's face. If you could have all the comforts of life but lost your Savior, 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 of famine, you will yet be satisfied with favor and full of the goodness of the Lord.