1 I said in mine lev [heart], Come now, I will test thee with simchah [mirth], therefore enjoy tov [pleasure]; and, hinei [behold], this also is hevel [vanity].

Pleasures in the world

There is recognition, entertainment, society, merry-making, and honour for those whom the world loves, and these things make the time speed pleasantly away.

Even for those that the world does not love, there are many pleasures provided, if people like to go in the way of them. There is a gratification to the natural mind in going with the multitude in the ways of pleasure. There is always a fascination about the thing, especially if it is "respectable," and engaged in as something about which the lovers of pleasure can say there is "no harm" in it.

The temptation to give in to this kind of seduction is liable to be felt in the loneliness, endurance and self-denial that belong to the present walk of fellowship with Christ. The temptation is especially felt by the young, who have not yet realized the hollow character of all the ways of man. They need especially to be warned, and if they are wise, they will listen.

There are two strong reasons why they should listen -- always pre-supposing that they have earnestly made Christ their portion, and not taken up with him merely because friends have done so. There are two things which make it impossible for those, whether old or young, who desire the approbation of Christ at his coming to indulge in the pleasures of the world, whether in the form of the ball-room, concert-hall, theatre, or any of the other devices which sinners have invented for the whiling away of their heavy hours.

The first is, these things are hurtful to the new man formed within them by the word: they check the fructification of the seed of the word. They hang a heavy weight on the spiritual racer: they help the sin which doth already too easily beset us: they tend to hold the mind in a carnal sympathy, and to keep at a distance the things of God.

They make us feel one with the world, which is God's enemy. They are therefore a hindrance. They do not help us to Christ, but they rather widen the distance between us and him. Who has not at one time or other experienced the mental blank -- the spiritual desolation -- caused by the peculiar mental excitement called "pleasure"?

Therefore on the score of spiritual expedience, spiritual men and women (and none others are the children of God) should never be found in the paths of pleasure-seeking. They should be found taking care of the seed of the word that has been sown in their hearts. To follow pleasure is as if a man should water his garden with vinegar or lime water. Let him water it rather with the pure water of the word, and manure it with those self-restraints and sobrieties which will make it healthful and strong and vigorous.

Bro Roberts - Danger, Seasons 1: 37

12 And I turned myself to behold [consider] wisdom [chochmah], and madness [holelot], and folly [sichlut]: for what can the man [adam] do that cometh after the king [HaMelech]? Even that which hath been already done.

What can the man do that cometh after the King?

Books and men of all sorts glorify human nature and paint human life in bright colours. Men take more naturally to the words of men than to the words of God. Consequently, they all indulge the most pleasing views and ideals, and go forth hopefully to find good. But one after another, they all come to experience the truth of the word of God, that as human life now is,

"all is vanity and vexation of spirit."

The pleasing views dissolve as life advances and the grim nature of current facts is slowly realised, though never finally discerned or clearly understood by those who receive not the teaching of Bible wisdom. Illusion more or less prevails to the last, for if a man find not good in his own case, he at least imagines his neighbour has found it—his neighbour all the while thinking perhaps the same of him.

The personal experience of Solomon is made use of by the spirit of God as the Divine limner in the case.

A man requires to see all to form a correct judgment. Men in a small sphere have always a higher sphere above them on which their imagination acts illusively. They find not good in their own sphere, but they fancy it exists in those others which become to them an object of desire and effort, in the very exercise of which they find a certain satisfaction. In this sense, those have the most happiness who are the lowest down, and who have the most contracted knowledge of human life. In this sense, Solomon's words are true:

"In much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."

The men of the largest experience are the least sanguine in all human matters. There would seem in this to be a denial of the other utterance of wisdom:

"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom, and with all thy gettings, get understanding."

But seeming and reality are not always the same. It does not follow because increased knowledge of this evil state brings increased sorrow, that therefore, in ultimate and future relations, wisdom is not a tree of life to them that lay hold on her; and that unhappy is every one that retaineth her. It still remains true that in higher application, wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

... Human life divorced from God, as it now is upon the earth, is the unhappy thing depicted in this book, and not the beatified and noble thing represented in all sorts of human philosophies. Therefore, enlarged knowledge is enlarged sadness. This was Solomon's case; and it is written that we may learn the truth of the matter, and verify it in our actual experience.

Sunday Morning 198

The Christadelphian, Jun 1889

21 For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.

It is pleasant to have the smile and countenance of neighbours; it is pleasant to have plenty in hand; it is pleasant to have the friendship and honour of the world; and, therefore, men are liable to be insensibly governed by these things in the ordering of their lives, and to yield but a cold response to the demands of wisdom -- demands which, in many cases, are inconsistent with these pleasures, and mortifying to the natural man in general.

The result of listening to these seductions will certainly be shame and death. This is revealed; and though men in prosperity may disregard the still small voice of wisdom, they will be compelled to listen at another time, when their surroundings will be those of desolation and consternation.

Profane talkers speak of the Nemesis that follows in the wake of human action. There is no Nemesis like the Word of God, spoken now in quietness and love. It will yet rend the foundation of wickedness with destructive earthquake. It will subvert all the kingdoms of the world with a violence before which fleets and armies will be as nothing, and which will cause even the children of pride to lament with a pitiful wail when they see their houses in ruins before the hurricane of divine vengeance.

Not that which is pleasant to be done, but that which is wise to be done, will be the motto of every true member of the house of Christ. And that which is wise to be done is that which God has commanded; because obedience to His commandments only, will bring honour and life at the last.

And what He has commanded is that which is written in the Scriptures of truth. Our anxiety, therefore, is to know, and remember, and hold fast, and honour, and constantly meditate upon, and do the things that are written therein. There is no other path of wisdom but this. In any other way vanity is the vexatious accompaniment, and death the end of the journey.

Bro Roberts - Light and Darkness

22 For what hath man [adam] of [for] all his labour [amal], and of the vexation [striving] of his heart [lev], wherein he hath laboured under the sun [shemesh]?

It is true that death is the penalty of sin,‭ ‬but it is not the only penalty.‭ ‬Suffering is part of the penalty.‭ ‬You may see this when you consider:‭

1.‭ ‬That the world is not only a dying world,‭ ‬but a suffering world‭;

2.‭ ‬That the Edenic sentence not only imposed death,‭ ‬but a curse on the ground:‭ "‬sorrow‭" ‬to Adam,‭ ‬while he‭ "‬ate of it all the days of his life‭;"

3.‭ ‬That the curse of the law on Israel was not only death but the dreadful calamities detailed so numerously in‭ ‬Deut.‭ xxviii‬.‭

Lastly,‭ ‬in the final redemption,‭ ‬the proclamation is not only‭ "‬no more death,‭" ‬but‭ "‬no more curse,‭ ‬no more pain.‭"

Consequently,‭ ‬the inconsistency which strikes you in there being‭ "‬many or few stripes‭" ‬of suffering before death is inflicted at the judgment seat,‭ ‬is an inconsistency that does not belong to the subject,‭ ‬but to a momentary misapprehension on the part of the reader.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1896