March 1

Unfailing Joys

And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. — John 2:3

This incident is a very fitting illustration of the failure of all this world’s joys. The wine gave out at a wedding-feast. There was not enough of it to last through to the end of the feast. It is just so with all earth’s pleasure. It comes in cups, not in fountains, and the supply is limited and soon exhausted. It is so especially with sin’s pleasures. The prodigal soon runs through with his abundance and begins to be in want.

A poet compared the pleasures of sin to a snowflake on the river, “a moment white, then gone for ever.” but it is true in a sense also of pure pleasures. Even the sweetness of human love is but a cupful which will not last for ever. The joy which so fills us to-day, to-morrow is changed to sorrow. Amid the gladness of the marriage altar there is the knell of the end in the words “till death us do part.” One of every two friends must hold the other’s hand in farewell at the edge of the valley, must stand by the other’s grave and walk alone part of the way.

The best wine of life and of love will fail. If there were nothing better in this world, how sad it would be! But it is here that we see the glory of Christ’s gospel. Jesus comes when earth’s wine fails and gives heaven’s wine to supply the lack. How beautiful and how true is the picture here, the failing wine, and then Jesus coming with power and supplying the want! That is what He is doing continually. He takes lives which have drained their last drop of earthly gladness and He satisfies them with spiritual good and blessing, so that they want nothing more.

When human joy fails, if we have Jesus with us, He gives new joy, better than the world’s, and in unfailing abundance. How sad it is for those who have not taken Christ into their lives, and who have nothing but the empty cup when earth’s wine gives out!