Paths of Disappointment # 2

Paths of Disappointment # 2

What shall it profit a man if he be a great farmer and know not Jesus, the Sower and Lord of Harvests? What shall it profit a man if he be a great florist and know not Jesus, the Rose of Sharon? What shall it profit a man if he be a great geologist and know not Jesus, the Rock of Ages? What shall it profit a man if he be a great astronomer and know not Jesus, the Star of Bethlehem? What shall it profit a man if he be a great horticulturist and know not Jesus, the True Vine? What shall it profit a man if he be a great judge and know not Jesus, the Righteous Judge? What shall it profit a man if he be a great jurist and know not Jesus, the True Witness? What shall it profit a man if he be a great jeweler and know not Jesus, the Pearl of Great Price? What shall it profit a man if he be a great philanthropist and know not Jesus, the Unspeakable Gift? What shall it profit a man if he be a great lawyer and know not Jesus, the Sinner's Advocate? What shall it profit a man if he be a great philosopher and know not Jesus, the Wisdom of God? What shall it profit a man if he be a great sculptor and know not Jesus, the Living Stone? What shall it profit a man if he be a great student and know not Jesus, the Incarnate Truth? What shall it profit a man if he be a great sinner and know not Jesus, the Lamb of God?

Mere human wisdom never satisfies. Even if we knew all things, there are many things we never would and never could know. Millions of things we do not know. Write down all we know and it will be a small volume. Write down all we do not know of things in the heavens and things in the earth and things under the earth, it would be a large library of many shelves and many large volumes.

But even if we knew all that there is to know in the realm of human knowledge, it would be a path of disappointment if, in knowing so much, we did not learn the two things most worth knowing.

Man in the course of his life, lays down one world after another. First, the infant's world of toys is abandoned. Second, the boy's world of games, amusements. So also the youth's world of schemes, enterprises, the dreams of progress and wealth. The path of disappointment is the path of human wisdom that excludes the things best worth knowing and most worth knowing.

Solomon sought experience and found disappointment in:

II. The Path of Wine

"I sought in mine heart, to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life" (Ecc. 2:3).

Having tried the path of earthly knowledge and wisdom and failing to find and get guest room in the house of happiness, Solomon next turns to wine. "Wine maketh glad the heart" (Psalm 104:15). And so we hear him saying, "Come, now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy thou pleasure" - that is, the pleasures wine is supposed to give. So Solomon "descends to the realm of the purely physical to cheer his flesh with wine."

I don't think he "descended to the low plain of sordid drunkenness," for he said, "I...give myself to wine, yet acquainting my heart with wisdom." Doubtless Solomon was not in the gutter. Doubtless he never did some of the fool things men do when they get under the influence of wine.

"Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of the mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick - they have beaten me, and I felt it not; when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again" (Proverbs 23:29-35).

He discovered for himself and transmitted to future generations the bitterness of that experience and observation which finds in the dregs of the sparkling cup, the sting of the adder, the poison of the serpent!

Solomon, while doubtless never a debased drunkard, "learned the ropes" of the wine realm. And the warnings he has put out against the bottle are vivid and true warnings.

Now the follies of the wine realm are still with us. The bitter fruit of the wine press is with us. The sins of the wine cup are rampant. There is the wine domination of certain social circles. There is the wine domination of certain customs.

"There is the wine iniquity of certain political institutions, parties, and governments. Perhaps no factor in American life has dealt with a more arrogant hand. Perhaps no factor in our American life has carried a mightier weight of influence in social, commercial political life than the wine business - the iniquitous whiskey business, the business without a conscience, the business without a care for the welfare of others."

But I am not to speak much of the drink business as a national curse, but an in individual curse, blight, and enormous sin. With many, what is the high mark of sociability today? The offer and the acceptance of the invitation to "have a drink!"

~Robert G. Lee~

(continued with # 3)