Chapter 23
recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. David and His Friends. A series of revival sermons by Lewis Albert Banks. The Tragedy of a Useless Life. Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up, wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you.
We bless you in the name of the Lord. Psalm 129 verses 6 through 8. When Napoleon Bonaparte was making his expedition across Egypt in command of the French army. They found themselves one morning traversing boundless plains of sand without water or shade and with a burning sun over their heads. All the wells on the road were either filled up or exhausted. Hardly a few drops of muddy or brackish water were to be found to quench their
thirst. In the midst of the general depression and hopelessness of the situation, a sudden gleam of hope illuminated the countenance of the soldiers. In the distance, they beheld a lake, with villages and palm trees clearly reflected in its glassy surface. Instantly, the weary troops burst into shouts of gladness, and though their lips were parched with thirst, they hastened forward to the enchanted spot, but it receded from their steps. Again, they pressed on with burning impatience,
but it forever fled from their approach, and they had at length the mortification and sorrow of discovering that they had been deceived by the mirage of the desert. The delusions which come to men and women who are deceived into giving themselves over to worldly and sinful lives are very much like that. God has made the mind and heart of man in too large a mold to be satisfied and find permanent peace in earthly things alone. And the worldly men and women have a variety of
ambitions and travel widely different paths if they have no hope in God, no fellowship with heaven, no title to a blissful immortality, no enjoyment of the spiritual life. They find at last that all the paths of mere worldliness lead into the desert where all streams die down in the sand, and every promise made to them of permanent peace proves to be but the deception of a mirage. How clearly this is set forth in our text. A life that neglects God is compared to the grass
upon the housetops. On the old flat roof houses, it would not be uncommon to see grass seeds that have been dropped by the birds getting root enough in the little pockets of earth to start up green in the springtime, but having no deep soil and no nourishing earth or streams of water beneath, it withers before it grows up. It never gets tall enough to be mowed, and it is dead and blown away by the wind before the sheaves in the field are bound in the autumn. Now, our text says that an
irreligious life is like that. Such people have their dreams of success and happiness, and they imagine in youth that this will be sufficient and that they do not need Christ, do not need a religious life. I talked last night with a young man and also with a young woman, both of whom told me frankly that they did not feel they need of being Christians. They are deluded with a feeling that the promises of life are sufficient without Christ in the gospel. But our text assures us
that all these promises are deceptive, and though they may be very green now, they will wither and die long before the harvest time of life comes. The more you study this, the truer it will appear to you. Think for a moment of the chief things which attract the attention of people and which promise to take the place of Christianity in making them happy. One of them is money. A young man says to himself, I am going to set myself to make money and to succeed in a business life,
and that will so take up my time and attention that I shall not need Christianity. I read you this evening for our scripture lesson the result of that in the case of a man who was very successful. A man who had large farms and fruitful fields that produced enormous crops so that his barns would not hold what he raised. Now, this man was a purely worldly man who proposed to find happiness in his success in business. There is no evidence that he was dishonest or that he was
cruel or drunken or uncomfortable as a neighbor. Indeed, there is only this one picture of him which indicates that he was a very shrewd, successful businessman, but one who had been so busy with these things that he paid no attention to God or the Bible and neglected the salvation of his soul. Now, what was the result? Christ says the result was that in the very day of his highest success, the day when he was congratulating himself on getting on so
splendidly, a thunderbolt of doom fell out of a clear sky, and God said to him, Thou fool, this night thou soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou has provided. Money has no power to give real peace to the heart. It promises much, but multitudes of people with large prosperity in a financial way are so miserable that life seems a curse instead of a blessing to them, because their sinful hearts will give them no peace. Another says,
I do not specially care for money, but I am going to win fame and honor, and I shall not need Christianity. It would only hamper me in my ambitions for success. But the whole history of mankind shows how transient and uncertain is the happiness that comes from the applause of men, and how useless it is, unless founded on a bedrock of righteous character. There never was a more brilliantly successful man of the type to win wide applause than Lord Clive of England,
the great conqueror of India. The triumphs of Ardui, which were wonderful enough in their way, were, after all, very insignificant in their far-reaching importance as compared to the great conquest of Lord Clive in India. When he came back to England, the king elevated him to a peerage, and parliament gave him every honor it knew how to give. His father wrote to him, The whole kingdom is in transport at the glory and success you have gained. Come away and let
us rejoice together. And yet, notwithstanding all his wealth and honors, the afternoon and evening of that man's life were most miserable. He had conquered many provinces, but he had not learned under God to master his own spirit. He was poor in the midst of wealth, wretched under all his honors, and at last, in despair, died the death of a suicide. The promises of life were green with hope for him, but they withered before the harvest. Someone else says, I shall devote myself to culture.
There are pleasures of the mind which do not wither like money or fame. That is true, but all these wither before the harvest and have no power to give permanent peace unless God is worshipped in them and his love nourishes the soul. There never was a more brilliant literary success than Lord Byron, and there never was a life more utterly unsatisfactory nor one which, coming to its close so young, drank deeper of the dregs of sorrow and despair.
While yet a young man, when if he had been a good man, he would have had his golden age yet before him, Byron dipped his pen in the anguish of a broken heart and wrote of himself on his last birthday, My days are in the yellow leaf, the flowers and fruits of love are gone, the worm, the canker and the grief are mine alone. The fire that in my bosom plays is lone as some volcanic isle. No torch is kindled at its blaze. A funeral pile. Still others say, I intend to have a good
time. Life is too short to give over to solemn things, and I propose to look on the bright side and have pleasure. How soon they find out that to have a good time in this world, one must not make that the chief end in life. God gives the best good time to the people who give themselves over to serving him and helping humanity. The people who give themselves over to fun and humor often have an aching heart beneath. I suppose the most popular man of mirth that ever lived was Theodore
hook. His wit gained him such success that he was made treasurer to the island of Mauritius by the English crown at a great salary. He was able to earn $20,000 a year with his pen. He was the lion of the fashionable and society world. He gave himself over to happiness, but the end was sorrow and despair. He has left a journal which shows that the worm was at the man's heart all the time. One day at a dinner party, all were struck with his ghastly paleness.
Turning round to a mirror, he himself bitterly exclaimed, Ah, I see how it is. I look just as I am, done up in mind, in body, and purse. Returning home, he took to his bed. A friend calling on him found him there. Here you see me, said the great wit. All my buckling and padding and washing dropped forever, and I am a gray-headed old man. He died a few days afterward in despair.
The pride of personality of beauty is equally as transient. I suppose the most beautiful woman Europe ever knew was Lady Hamilton. She ruled over the great by her personal beauty. But a little time passes, and one day a lady was buying some meat for her dog in Calais, France, when the butcher's wife said to her, Madam, you seem a benevolent lady,
and upstairs there's a poor English woman who would be glad of the smallest piece of meat which you were buying for your dog. The woman who was glad to get dog's meat at the hand of charity was Lady Hamilton, the greatest beauty of Europe. She died in poverty and despair. Many a saint has died in poverty, but never one yet died in despair or in poverty because of his own sins. And so we have gone the round of the circle and have taken them at their best. We have taken the most distinguished examples
and those who succeed, as well as anybody, can hope to succeed. And yet there is always failure. I have not told you of the multitude who, like Esau, sow their souls for a mess of pottage, hoping to get money or fame or pleasure and never get the pottage, but lose their souls just the same. But what I urge upon you is that a worldly, irreligious life, a life that neglects God and Christ and duty is, at its best, a failure. There is another tragic suggestion in our text,
that a life neglectful of God not only fails of its ambitions, but it is a useless life. It does no good. It is a terrible thing to live in this world and not be of value to it. I cannot imagine anything sadder than to live so that your example and influence may, instead of helping somebody, hurt others and lead them astray. It is impossible for us to do good with our lives without being good ourselves. A stream can never flow higher than its source.
It will never rise above the fountain where it started. If you are going to help the world and be of use, then you must do your duty to God yourself. The very first condition of usefulness is to recognize your own responsibility to God and act upon it at once by obeying his commandments. It pleases me to make this appeal to you because in doing so, I am appealing to the very noblest thing in you. I am not appealing to that which is least and most selfish in you, but to that which
is noblest. I beg of you to do right, to obey God, to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, not only because in doing so you will obtain the forgiveness of your sins and will get deep peace and happiness in your own heart, but because it will place you where God can use your life in making it a blessed influence to help others. Finally, it is certainly a very suggestive thing and a very important one that a worldly, irreligious life is not only temporary and useless, but it is a life which
is unblessed by others. See what the text says. Neither do they which go by say, the blessings of the Lord be upon you. We bless you in the name of the Lord. Worldly applause is very fickle, but it is a precious thing to be blessed in the name of the Lord by people to whom you have been helpful.
Because God has given you the strength, so live and act before them, and so influence them, that you have been God's messenger to them and have made them stronger and better.
This, then, is the message which I bring to you tonight. To be happy yourself, to be useful yourself, to build up a character so that others will rise up and call you blessed. You must give your heart to God and seek to serve him with fidelity and devotion. And God is ready now to receive you. The door is open into divine mercy, and no hand can shut it but your own.
If you will say here and now, trusting in God, I will begin the Christian life, there is no power that can stand in the way. Choose life and not death this night. End of section number 23. Read by Kevin Waters. Spring Hill, Florida. August 11th, 2021.
