UNSATISFIED

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1902

That one word expresses in negative form the normal state of the living Christian. It does not mean that he is dissatisfied, despondent, despairing, longing, wishing, hoping for something else. He is not dissatisfied in possessing Christ; he is unsatisfied because he knows not more of Him.

Alexander Pope, in His “Essay on Man,” expresses the following sentiment, which many treasure as a wonderful thought:—

“One self-approving hour whole years outweighs, Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas.”

In a sense this may be true; but generally those who like to be pleased with themselves long for the approval of others. Self-approval of work, of accomplishments, of spiritual attainments, is generally a bar to future progress. What artist could sit quietly down and approve himself for one hour in the light of the wonderful glories of nature on sea and sky, on mountain and valley, on flower and leaf, and of the passions and impulses which continually come and go on human faces, yet unlimned on board or canvas? He sees so much to be done that is yet undone that he has no time for self-approval. He is not dissatisfied with the knowledge he has acquired or the skill attained; but he is unsatisfied that he knows and can do so little.

And this is just as true in the musical world, in the mechanical world, in the intellectual world, in the spiritual world. It is not the great engineers, inventors, electricians, that sit down to spend an hour in self-approval. They have not time. The last achievement of man, over which a foolish world has gone insane, has only been an opening for him into another unfenced, unexplored field, and he is yet unsatisfied. Marconi’s messages no sooner spanned a channel than he dreamed of an ocean; and the ocean is no sooner crossed than he talks of a world.

This unsatisfaction is pre-eminently true of the living Christian. If one has seen Christ Jesus, he has seen perfection. If he has seen God’s law, he has seen perfection. These have revealed the errors, the failures, the sins, the imperfections in his own life and character. He is not dissatisfied with the law. He would not banish his knowledge of the perfection of the Man of Calvary. But he has no place or time to sit down and approve himself. In the light of the Perfect One all the comeliness of the man greatly beloved, was turned into corruption. Dan. 10:6-19. Isaiah, a special messenger of God, in the light of the Divine glory could only cry, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.” Isa. 6:1-7.

The apostle Paul voices the true Christian experience: “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if so be, that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Jesus Christ. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 3:12-14, R. V.

Praise God for all the victories of the past; preserve in the present a conscience void of offense toward God and man; but never, no, never, sit down for an hour or a minute in self-approval. It is one of the things which makes pygmies of men. Let Christ’s perfection be your goal in all your work. Say with the psalmist, “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.” Ps. 17:15. That will not be till we are made immortal.