Proverbs 25:16

Hast thou found honey?

eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

Religion and pleasure

It is a mistaken notion that religion is a melancholy business, and the enemy of pleasure. Christianity is supposed to be synonymous with inanity, and to impose a weariness alike on flesh and spirit that stifles the freedom, represses the elasticity, and dulls the brightness which are the natural and precious heritage of youth. But this is as false as the devil who coined it. I stand here as the messenger of God, as the champion of pleasure, the advocate of hilarity, the apostle of enjoyment, the prophet of light-heartedness. Pleasure is a necessity of our nature. The goodness of God has made bountiful provision for full satisfaction and delight. The body is endowed with senses capable of exquisite sensations of delight. When you talk of the melancholy of religion you become the Pharisaic boaster, and not

I. You thank your God that you are not as other men. If the intellect seeks pleasure in the study of the physical universe, does the Christian philosopher discover less to charm his mind than do his scientific comrades of less assured belief? But ours is a triple manhood. There is the moral and spiritual man. Surely there is honey in doing right; there is pleasure in goodness and truth. As to the honey of life to be found in a good conscience, in doing right, in walking uprightly, according to the universally recognised laws of morality, surely the Christian has a better chance than the ordinary man. What does religion allow, or rather enjoin, in the way of pleasant recreations?

1. They must do me no harm; neither enfeeble my body, rob my brain of its vital energy, or disturb my inward sense of right.

2. They must recreate my body; brace it up, and leave me readier for after-service.

3. They must refresh my mind; not make it sluggish, heavy, depressed, and ill at ease.

4. They must cheer my heart--in their present influence, in their results, and in their memory. (J. Jackson Wray.)

The use of honey

1. The Bible does not prohibit pleasure. It does not say to the man who has found honey, “Eat it not!” but “Eat so much as is sufficient for thee.” What the Bible forbids is excess.

2. In prohibiting such pleasures, the Bible proceeds upon a principle of benevolence. “Eat no more than is sufficient for thee!” Why? Not because pleasure is grudged, but because pain is deprecated.

3. The principle upon which the Bible proceeds in this matter is a benevolent one, because it accords with the constitution of our nature. There is a point at which pleasure becomes pain. It is the law of our being, that if pleasure is to remain pleasure, it must be enjoyed moderately and intermittently. (Homiletic Review.)

Pleasure

I. The permission.

1. Pleasure is a necessity of our nature.

(1) A necessity of its complex constitution. We are made to enjoy. We have capacity for

(a) Animal pleasure;

(b) intellectual pleasure;

(c) moral pleasure;

(d) religious pleasure;

(e) social pleasure.

(2) A necessity of its instinctive desires. We have an intense craving for enjoyment. “Who will show us any good?” This yearning for enjoyment, found alike amid the refinements of civilisation as amid the rudeness of barbarism, alike in the mansion of the rich as in the cottage of the poor, alike by the learned philosopher as by the illiterate peasant.

(3) A necessity of its perfect development.

2. Pleasure is a possibility of our condition. God, the all-wise and all-kind, has not only made us for pleasure and given us a strong desire for it, but has also bountifully surrounded us with its sources.

(1) For the animal faculties. There is light for the eye, music for the ear, fragrance for the smell.

(2) For the intellectual. The universe is a problem for our study.

(3) For the moral. The true and good are around us, in the character of God, the actions of the good, etc.

(4) For the religious. God in Christ is revealed as the Object of worship.

(5) For the social. There is society, with its varied life.

3. Pleasure is an element of our religion. Christianity is not a morbid, ascetic system. “Rejoice in the Lord alway.”

II. The limitation: “Eat so much as is sufficient for thee.” Pleasure is not to be indulged indiscriminately and unlimitedly. We must indulge in such pleasures only as are--

1. Dignified in their nature. We must remember the spirituality of our nature and the immortality of our being. We are not animals. Let us not make the mistake of the rich fool. We are made in God’s image, and are capable of high and noble joys.

2. Beneficial in their influence. Pleasure must not be sought and indulged in on its own account, but as a means toward the attainment of a higher end. The objects of pleasure are--to recreate the body; to refresh the mind; to cheer the heart; to fit us for the work of life.

3. Christian in their sanction.

4. Proportionate in their degree. Pleasure must not be the end of life. It must not be pastime. Time is too valuable to be frittered away. (Thomas Baron.)

The world’s honey

I. The world has its honey.

1. It has a gastric honey. What pleasures can be derived from a participation in the precious fruits of the earth!

2. It has a gregarious honey. How great the pleasure men have in mingling with their kind, merely as social animals; the pleasure of mates, parents, children.

3. It has a secular honey. Pursuit, accumulation, and use of wealth.

4. It has aesthetic honey. The beautiful in nature, art, music.

5. It has intellectual honey. Inquiry into, and discovery of, the Divine ideas that underlie all the forms, and ring through all the sounds of nature.

II. The world’s honey may be abused.

1. Some eat too much of the gastric honey, and become gourmands, epicures, voluptuaries.

2. Some eat too much of the gregarious honey, and become profligate debauchees, bloated animals.

3. Some eat too much of the secular honey, and become wretched misers, haunted with a thousand suspicions.

4. Some eat too much of the aesthetic honey, and grow indifferent to everything but what they consider the beautiful and harmonious.

5. Some eat too much of the intellectual honey, and they have no life but in that of observatories, laboratories, and libraries.

III. The world’s honey abused produces nausea. Over-indulgence in any worldly pleasure issues in a moral sickness and disgust. There is what the French call the ennui that comes out of it--“that awful yawn,” says Byron, “which sleep cannot abate.” The intemperate use of this honey often makes life an intolerable burden. Conclusion: Take care how you use the world. You may have too much of a good thing. There is a honey, thank God! of which you cannot take too much, which will never surfeit or sicken--that is, the honey of spiritual enjoyment; the enjoyment of studying, imitating, worshipping Him in whose presence there is fulness of joy, etc. (D. Thomas, D.D.)