Proverbs 13:19

The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul.

Soul pleasure and soul pain

I. Soul pleasure. What is it?

1. An accomplished desire. Desire is the spring power of our activities. Locke defines it “as the uneasiness which a man feels within him on the absence of anything whose present enjoyment carries the delight with it.” The desires of the soul, which are very varied, are very significant of our destiny. “Our desires,” says Goethe, “are the presentiments of the faculties which lie within us, the precursors of those things which we are capable of performing. That which we would be and that which we desire present themselves to our imagination, about us and in the future. We prove our aspiration after an object which we already secretly possess. It is thus that an intense anticipation transforms a real possibility into an imaginary reality. When such a tendency is decided in us, at each stage of our development a portion of our primitive desire accomplishes itself under favourable circumstances by direct means, and in unfavourable circumstances by some more circuitous route, from which, however, we never fail to reach the straight road again.” Indeed, pleasure consists in the gratification of desires.

2. The quality and permanency of the pleasure must ever depend on the object of the desire. If the thing desired is immoral, its attainment will be “sweet to the soul” for a little while, but afterwards it will become bitter as wormwood and gall. The triumph of truth, the progress of virtue, the diffusion of happiness, the honour of God, these are objects of desire that should give a holy and everlasting sweetness to the soul. God Himself should be the grand object of desire. “As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.”

II. Soul pain. “It is an abomination to fools to depart from evil.”

1. There is soul pain in being connected with evil. Conscience is always tormenting the sinner; from its nature it can never be reconciled to an alliance with evil.

2. There is soul pain in the dissolution of that connection. There is a fierce conflict, a tremendous battle in the effort. (Homilist.)