Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men… Sensual pleasures are among the most dangerous enemies of virtue. But, ardent and prone to excess, they require to be subjected to a prudent and holy vigilance, and to be indulged with caution and circumspection. I. MUCH INDULGENCE IN PLEASURE TENDS TO WEAKEN THAT WATCHFULNESS AND GUARD, WHICH A WISE AND GOOD MAN WILL FIND IT NECESSARY ALWAYS TO MAINTAIN OVER HIMSELF. Pleasure seldom admits wisdom of her party. The wand of truth which she carries, would destroy all those unreal images and airy visions with which the deluded voluptuary is surrounded. There the heart is thrown loose from restraint, and laid open to the lively and warm impression of every seducing idea. Men abandon themselves without suspicion to the sweet neglect, and through the unguarded avenues enter a multitude of enemies, who were only lying in wait for this decisive moment. II. PLEASURE NOT ONLY IMPAIRS THE GUARD WHICH A WISE MAN SHOULD CONSTANTLY MAINTAIN OVER HIS HEART, BUT OFTEN LAYS IT OPEN TO TOO STRONG TEMPTATIONS. Of this David affords us an instructive and affecting example. How much more certainly will pleasure corrupt those, who enter its purlieus without circumspection, and expose themselves unguarded to all the dangerous force of its temptations in the house of feasting! Here example, and sympathy, all the arts of seduction, all the allurements of ingenuity, all the decorations that wit can give to vice, unite their influence to betray the heart. III. SCENES OF PLEASURE AND INDULGENCE TEND TO IMPAIR THE SENTIMENTS OF PIETY TOWARDS GOD. A continual succession of pleasures is apt to efface from the mind that sentiment of dependence upon the Creator, so becoming the state of man. The mind, humbled by suffering, enjoys the smallest mercy with gratitude; while the greatest, by proud prosperity, is first abused and then forgotten. IV. HIGH AND CONSTANT PLEASURES ARE UNFRIENDLY TO THE EXERCISE OF THE BENEVOLENT AFFECTIONS. They tend to contract and harden the heart. The importunities of want, the sighs of wretchedness, are unwelcome intruders on the joyous festival. Who are disposed to seek out the retreats of sorrow and distress, and to administer there those consolations which the afflicted require? Are they not those who have themselves been educated in the school of misfortune, and who have been taught, by their own feelings, the claims of suffering humanity? Are they not those who often turn aside from the prosperous course, which Providence permits them to bold through life, to visit the receptacles of human wretchedness, and to carry comfort into the habitations of penury and disease? Who learn there to feel what is due to human nature? Pleasure is selfish. Attracting everything into its own centre, it loosens the bonds of society. Hence it is that luxury hastens the ruin of nations in proportion as it makes the love of pleasure the reigning character of their manners. V. PLEASURES TEND TO ENFEEBLE THE PRINCIPLE OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. Self-denial is necessary to self-command. In the midst of moderate enjoyments and corrected appetites, the sentiments of duty have opportunity firmly to root themselves, and to acquire ascendancy among the other principles of the heart, unrestrained indulgence corrupts them. And the passions, growing inflamed and ungovernable, hurry away their weak captives over all the fences of prudence as well as of piety. Moderation and self-denial are necessary to restore the tone of nature, and to create the highest relish even of the pleasures of sense. VI. PLEASURE IS UNFAVOURABLE TO THOSE SERIOUS REFLECTIONS UPON OUR MORTAL CONDITION, AND THE INSTABILITY OF ALL HUMAN THINGS, SO USEFUL TO PREPARE THE SOUL FOR HER IMMORTAL DESTINATION. It is only when we recollect that we are united to this world by a momentary tie, and to the next by eternal relations, that we shall despise, as reasonable beings ought to do, the fantastic occupations of the dissipated and the idle, and cultivate the solid and immortal hopes of piety. These are lessons not taught in the house of seating. (S. S. Smith, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. |
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