"LOOK NOT THOU UPON THE WINE WHEN IT IS RED"
“LOOK NOT THOU UPON THE WINE WHEN IT IS RED”
Many a day I have suffered and sorrowed in seeking to wean myself from the pleasures of the mind; and it was in vain, until I had received, through mercy, a taste of being with Christ where He is. This threw everything into the shade. I do not doubt that I could resuscitate those pleasures; but instead of wishing to do so, I fear to look upon the wine when it is red (Proverbs 23: 31), because I know what is so superior.
If you have Christ as your treasure, you must “sell that thou hast, and give to the poor” (Matthew 19: 21); even the things in nature which God had given you must not interfere with Him. The son of the bondwoman must not be heir with the one blessed One. When you know Him you find He surpasses all, and you take care that your natural surroundings are not such as will raise a question as to the fact of His pre-eminence; you have a treasure of another kind, and so find that the things in nature only hamper and hinder you; and the more your heart is occupied with Him, the more will you rejoice in the exchange, and count all things but dross that Christ may be your gain.
Surely you admit the blessing of all this, but do you fear the wine? The wine is the stimulant to nature, the water is natural blessing. Gideon’s three hundred men were proved at the water. The good soldier prefers Christ to natural blessing; but the true heart, the real [p. 289] Nazarite, fears even to look at the wine - the society or association where nature is ministered to and pleased. The one in Christ shrinks from, nay, hates, the life for which Christ was judged. He rejoices in Christ his life, and walks here crucified in Christ’s cross to all in him, and around him, which is not of God.