Philippians 4:4-8 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.… The infidel cannot be habitually cheerful. Hear Hume say in his treatise on human nature, "I am affrighted and confounded with that forlorn solitude in which I am placed by my philosophy. When I look abroad, I see on every side dispute, contradiction, distraction, When I turn my eyes inward, I find nothing but doubt and ignorance. Where am I and what? From what causes do I derive my existence and to what condition shall I return? I am confounded with this question, and begin to fancy myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable." Here you have one of the most philosophic, and, in many respects, one of the best of infidels, making this as his confession. Then, if you turn to the man of poetry and pleasure, Lord Byron says "There is nothing but misery in this world, I think." This sentence was not written for effect; it was the genuine outpouring of that man's heart. He had tried everything earthly. He certainly had been to every human and temporal fountain of enjoyment. He had gone through experience like that through which the wise man takes us in the Book of Ecclesiastes, and this is his conclusion — "There is nothing but misery in this world, at least, so I think." (S. Martin.) Parallel Verses KJV: Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. |
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