The sum
total of worldly enjoyment in those two ciphers!
(John
Angell James, "Youth
Warned!" 1824)
"I have seen everything that is done under the sun. Look at
it! All is vanity and vexation of spirit!" Ecclesiastes 1:14
The design of Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes seems to
be this--after detailing the good things of life to the widest
extent, setting them in the strongest light, and granting to
them every possible advantage which their most passionate
admirers contend for--to demonstrate, that as they are
attended with so many inseparable evils, are so short-lived
in their continuance, so unprofitable in the hour of death,
and so utterly useless in the eternal world beyond the
grave--that they are insufficient for the needs of the soul,
and inadequate to the eternal happiness of man.
No one was more capable of forming a correct opinion on
this subject than Solomon; since no man ever commanded
more resources of earthly delight than he did, or ever more
eagerly availed himself of the opportunities which he
possessed. And yet he grew disgusted and dissatisfied
with sensual pleasures, and at length gives us the
sum
total of worldly enjoyment in those two ciphers
--vanity and vexation of spirit!
His testimony, therefore, is to be considered as that of
a man who had drunk the cup of earthly pleasures
to its dregs--and who found those dregs to be
wormwood, gall, and poison!
We have just published John Angell James' outstanding
sermon, "Youth
Warned!" Must reading for parents
and teens!