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Frivolity, he says, is the herald and handmaid of guilt. The cords are cords of vanity bound about us in mere thoughtlessness in the unguarded hours of recreation, in the giddy whirl of society, when talk is gay and free, and no man weighs his words; the cords of vanity bind us on subtly but surely to the calamitous burden of sin. I submit to you that the prophet in thus linking together frivolity and iniquity, commends himself to us as a close and just observer of human society. Profanity is the last term of a series; it is a stage we reach by the unmarked way of frivolous habit, and that unmarked way is the broad way of the general life. Society itself is unfavourable to thought and gravity and depth of character. It makes us of necessity superficial, light, shallow. At best it ministers to the gracious externals of a man's conduct, and too often it does this at the cost of his character; for the philosopher said truly that custom is the principal magistrate of a man's life; and if, by the ceaseless iteration of frivolous speech and action, we bind upon ourselves the chain of frivolous habit, be sure the mischief penetrates into the very citadel of character.

(Canon H. Hensley Henson, B. D.)

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KJV: Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:

WEB: Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope;