SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6811, 15 September 1883, Page 3 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

" Tflti VANITIES." BY K> v. T. I>E WITT TALMAGK. "Vanity vanities, aEilli t'a-; icher, ail is vanity Kc. xil. tfc. When a hook is pliced in your hinds, the first question you.ask is, " Who wrote it?" Mightier than a book always is the man who wrote the b< ok. Now, who is the author of this text? King Solomon, 14 seemed as if the world exhausted itself on that man. It wove its brightest flowers into hin garland. It set its richest gems in his coronet. It pressed the rarest wines to his lips-. It. robed him in tha purest purple and embroidery. lb cheere l him with the sweetest music in that lan 3 of harps. It greeted him with the gladdest laughter that ever leaped from mirth's li[is. It sprinkled his cheeks with spray from the brightest fountains. Royalty hid no domini-.n, wealth no luxury, i gold ao glitter, fliwera no Bweetness, | tound no melody, light no radiance, up- I holatery no eorgeou3ness, waters no gleam, birds no plumage, prancing coursers no mettle, architecture no grand* ur, but it was all his. Across the thick grass of the lawn, frauraut with tufts of samphire from Bngeili, fell the long shadow* of tr.es brought trom E.'stern forests. Fi-h pools, fed by artific : al channels that brought the stream from hills far aWay, were perpetually ruffled with tins, and golden scales shot from water cave to water cave with eirtless dive and •swill, a*trading the gaze of foreign potentates. Birds that had b en brought from foreign aviary glanced and fluttered among thn foliage, and cat!' d to their mates far beyond the sea. From the royal stables there came up the neighing of 15,000 horses standing in blankets of Syrian purple, chewing their bits over troughs of gold, waiting for the king's Order to be brought out in front of tne palace, when the official dignitarie.i wi'uld leap into the saddle for some grind parade, or, harnessed to some of the 1-iOO chariots of the king, the fiery chargers with flaunting mane and throbbing nostrils, would make the earth jar With the tramp of hoofs and the thunder of wheels, while within and without the palace you could not think; of a Single luxury that could be added, or of a single splendour tha; could be kindled. UoVm on the bankß of the sea the d>y docks of rang with the hammers of the shipwrights Who were constructing larger vessels for a still wider commerce, for all lands and climes were to I'o robbed to make up Solomon's glory. No rest till his keels shall cut every sea, his s atneu hew every fores 1 , his archers strike every rare win-?, his fishermen y. hip every stream, his merchants trade in every bazaar, his name be honoured iu every tribe, and royalty shall have ho dominion, wealth no luxury, gold no glitter, song no melody, light no radiance, waters no gleam, birds no plumage, prancing coursers no mettle,' upholstery no gorgeousntsa, architecture no grandeur, but it was all his,. " Well," you say, "if there is any man happy lie ought to be." I hear him comin? out through the palace, and see his robe 3 actually encrusted with jewels as he stands in the front and looks out upon the vast domain. What does he say ? King Solomon, great is your dominion, great is! your honour, great is your joy? No; . While standing.: there amid all that splendour, the tears start, and his heart breaks, and he exclaims, " Vanity of vanities—all is vanity"!" What, Salomon not happy yet? No—not happy. " I learn from this subj ct, in the first place, that official position Will never give solace to a man's soul. I know there have been very happy men in high positions, such as Wilberforcp, as Theodore Freylinghusen, as Governor Briggs, as Prince Albert. But the joy came not from their elevated positions ; it came from the Lord God whom they tried to serve. This man Solomon was king thirty-five years. All the pleasure that came fiom palatial residence,.. from the fljttery of foreign diplomatists, from universal sycophancy gathered round him. Kor a long while his throne Stood firm, and the people were loyal, and yet hear his awful sigh of disheartenment in the words of my text. How many people in all ages have m*de the same experiment with the same failure! Bqw often you see people who think—" if I could only get into this or that position—lf I could be a mayor, or a governor, or a senator, or a .president* I should be perfectly happy!" And they have gone on climbing from one position to the other, never .finding the solacer they anticipated. Ask the. men who have gone through the political life of the last forty years, in their old days, what they think of the honours of this world, and they will tell you, "Ashes! ashes!" An old man told me some time ago that he called at the White House jiist before the expiration of the second term of President Jackson. He sent a message in, the. President came not. Ho sent a second time, and a third time. After a while the President canje. out in great indignation, and said, " i ■ entlemen, people envy me in this White House, and tbey long to get here ; but I tell you at the end of the second term I am glad to get out of it, for it is .a perfect hell, n ..The honours and emoluments of this world bring bo many cares with them that they bring also torture and disquietude. Pharaoh sat on one of the highest earthly eminences, yet he is miserable because there are some people in his realm that do not want any longer to make bricks. The head of Edward I. aches under his crown because the people will not pay the taxes, and Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, will not do him homage, and Wallace will be a hero. Frederick William 111. of Prussia is miserable because Fiance wants to take the Prussian provinces. The ghastliest suffering, the mi st Shrivelling fear, the most rendiug jealousies, the moat gigantic disquietude have walked amid obsequious courticrs, and been cliithed in royal apparel, and sat on judgment seats of power. Honour and truth and justice cannot go so high up in authority as to be beyond the 1 range of human assault. The pure and the good in all ages have been execrated by the mob who cry out, "Not this man, but Barabbas." By patriotic devotion, by honesty, by Christian principle, I would have you, my hearers, ask for the favour and the confidence of your fellow-men, but do not look 1 upon some high position in society as though that were always sunshine. The mountains of earthly honours are like the mOnntaios of Switzerland, covered with perpetual ice and : snow. Having obtained the confidence and the love of your associates, be content with such things *s you have. You brought: nothing intn the world, and it is very cer- ! tain you can carry nothing out- Cease ye from man, whose breath is in bis nostrils. There is a honour that is worth possessing, but it is an honour that comes from God. This day rise tip and take it. Behold what j manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon ns that we should be called the sons of God. Who aspires not fqr that royalty ? Come now and be kings and priests unto God and the. Lamb for ever. Still further, I learn from rny subject that worldly Wealth cannot satisfy the soul's longing, i The more money a man has the better, if he gets it honestly and uses it lawfully. The whole teaching of the Word of God has a tendency to create those kind of habits and that kiud of mental aoumen which lead on to riches. A man who talks against Wealth ag though it were a bad thing is either a knave or a fool, not meaning What he says,, or ignorant of the generous uses to which, money can be put. But the man Who builds his soul's happiness on earthly accumulation is not at. all wise, to put it in the faintest shape. To say that Solomon was a millionaire gives but a very imperfect idea of the property he inherited from David, his father. Be had at his command gold to the value of £680.000,000, and ho had silver to the value of £1,000,000. The Queen of Sheba made him a nice little preaent of £720,000, and Hiram made him a present of the same amount. If he had lost the value of a whole realm out of his pocket it would have hardly been worth his while to stoop down to pick it up ; and yet with all that aflluence he writes the words of my text, " Vanity of vanities, ail is vanity." Alas, if that man could not find in all his worldly possessions l enough tp satisfy his immortal soul, no amount that you and I will ever gather by the sweat of our brow or by the strength of our arm will make us happy. I have been amused to hear people when they start in life say at What time iu life they will be contented with worldly possessions. One man says, " I want to get £20,000 and I will be Satisfied." Another, "I want to get fifty or a hundred thousand or a million, and then I will be satisfied. Then I will say to my soul, 'Now, just look at that block of ' store-houses. Just look at those Government securities. Just look at those bonds and mortgages. Just look what lucrative, investments you have. Now,, my soul, take thine ease,, eat, drink, and be merry!" Thou foolif you are not happy now with

the nmallcr possessions, you wiil:' never 'be. with the larger p aaesaidha. jf wicti <lece/it aha comely apparel' you are niit ir Vtulul to On-', yon would be ungrateful i you hVI « prince* wardrobe cfoyvded till the rinses burst, if you silt this .AS you• table i-nii }f: fuod was. so poo yi;» lOtiir plained, you would not be s.fisfiuil though yon Bat down to partridge and piu- up pi-;. If you are not con rent with in income to Kupport com'o'rtaiily vour honsfiliold, you. would not be qouteuteil, though, yonr income rolled ia on y>>u £.79,000 or £ 100,000 a year. It is not wh»t Wn 'J' it is what we are that makes us happy or ni aerab'e. If that. ( is not so how do yon account for the fact j that many of who fare sumptuously j every day are waspish, aud dissatisfied,. and I foreboding, and cranky, and uncompromising, with a countenance ia which wrath, always lowers, and a lip which scorn curls, whilo. many a time in the summer evening you see & labouring man going home in his shirt-sleeves, with a pjil on his arm and a pickaxe over his shoulder, his face bright with smiles and his heart with hope, and the night of his toil bright with flaming auroras ? It is an illustration of the fact that it is not outward condition that makes, a man happy. A iiian cafne to Rothschild,, the great banker, and said, "You mast be a. thoroughly happy man." He said, "Happy? Me happy? Happy, when just as 1 am going to die a man sends me a note, saying, ' If you don't send me £500 before to morrow night I will blow your brains out.' Me bappy ?" Oh. I wish I could, by . the power of the Lord Almighty, break the infatuation o£ those men who are neglecting the present sources of satisfaction, hoping that there is to be something iu the future for them of a worldly nature that will satisfy their souls. The heart right, all is right. The heart wrong, all is wrong. But I aak you to higher riches, to crowns that never fade, to investments that, always declare dividends. Come up this day and get riches of God's pardon, the riches of God's mercy, the riches of God's peace. Blessed are all they who put their trust in. Hifn.

;I go still further and learn from this subject tliat learning and science cannot satisfy the soul. You know that Solomon w.is. one of the largest contributors to the literature of his day. He wrote 1003 songs ; he wrote 3000 proverbs. He wrote about almost everything. The Bible says distinctly be wrote about the plants, frotri the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that groweth out of the walls, and about birds and beasts and fishes. Yet, notwithstanding all bis achievements, he cries out in my text, Vanity of vanities ; all is vanity." Have you ever seen a man trying to make learning and ssienee his ged ? Did you ever know -ttch a fearful autobiography as that of John Stuart Mill, a man who prided himself on his philosophy and had a wonderful strength ot.. intellect? Yet, after his death, his autobiography went forth to the world, showing that his whole life was a gigantic wretchedness. We have seen men go. out with mineralogist's hammer, and geologist's pry, and; botanist's knife, and, ornithologist's gun, and storm the kingdom of Nature in her barren castles of cave and grove and forest, and if there is any ht-aven on earth it is that. With your eyes prepared for all beautiful sights, aud your .ears for all sweet sounds, and your sail for all great thoughts, if you go forth in the place where God bieathes in the aroma of flowers, and talks in the wind's rustling, and sings in the roar of forest and mountain . cataracts, then you know why Linussus spent his life among plants, and Cuvier. found intelligent converse among beasts, and Werner grew exhilarant among minerals, and Audubon revelled among birds, and Agassiz found untrayelled worlds of thought iu a fish. Bat every man who has testified after trying the learning and science of the world for a soluce has testified that it is an insufficient portion. The philosopher has often, wept in attronomer's observatory, chemist's laboratory, botanist's herbarium. There are times when the soul dives deeper than the fi-ih and soars higher than the bird, and though it may be enraptured with the beauties of the natural worjd it Will long after treea of life that never wither, and fountains that never dry up, and stars that, shall shine after the glories, of our earthly nights have gone out lor ever. Oh! what discontent, what jealousy, -what uncontrollable hate has sprung up among those who depended upon their literary success. How often have writers plunged their pens into the hearts of their rivals, pens sharper than cimetars, striking deeper than bayonets. Voltaire hated Eoaaeau. Charles Lamb could not rndurc Coleridge.. Wallop warred against Cowley. The hatred of Plato and Xenophon is as immurtal as their works. Corneille bad an utter contempt for Ragine. Have you ever been in Westminster Abbey ? In the Poet's Cornet in Westminster Abbey sleep Draytou, the poet, and a little way ofl Goldie, who said the former was not a poet. There sleep Dryden, aud a little way off poor Shadwell, who pursued him with a. fiend's fury. There Is Pope, and a little way . off .is John Dennis, his implacable enemy. They never before came so near together without quarrelling. Byron had all that genius could give a man, and that sympa'hy with Nature could give a man, and that literary applause could give a man, and yet he died of wretchedness.

.. I come to learn one tnore lesson from my subject, and that is that ther-- is no comfort in the life of a voluptary. I dare not draw aside the curtain that bides the excesses into which Solomon's dissoluteness plunged him. Though he \vav<;d ii sceptre over others, there arose in his own soul a tyraut that mastered him. V\ ith. a mandate that pone dare disobey his laid the whole land under tribute to his. iniquity. But there is no peaqe in the life of a voluptary, Solomon, anßwer,None ! none!" But, my friends, if there is no complete satisfaction in worldly office, in worldly Wealth, in worldly learning, in sinful indulgence, where is there any ? Has God turned us out on a desert to. die? Ah, no, look at this fair oue that comes!. Immortal -garlands on her brow. The soog of Heaveu bursting from her lips. " Hef ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace/' lp Christ is peace. In Christ is pardon. In Christ is everlasting joy, and nowhere else.