Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. (2) I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? (3) I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. (4) I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: (5) I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: (6) I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: (7) I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: (8) I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. (9) So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. (10) And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. (11) Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

Here is a very faithful account of those things in which carnal men place their chief good. Mirth, and wine; and houses of vermillion and cedar, silver and gold; men servants, and maid servants; horses, and equipage; music, and no doubt dancing, also; with, in short, everything that might gratify the flesh with its affections and lusts. Reader! pause, I beseech you, over this account; and then take a look, if it be but a short one, of the present state of things around; and say, if Solomon had drawn this representation not for himself, but for the world, in this nineteenth century of Christianity, could the picture have been more accurate? Would it not excite the pity of an angel could he be supposed to be looking on, to see the multitude of those who call themselves the followers of the humble Redeemer, so deeply engaged in the reverse of what his blessed gospel teacheth. The Man of Uz hath drawn a similar picture of the carnal in his day. Job 21:7. And Asaph, hath taught us, what effect such characters have in the exercises of the faithful. Psalms 73:3.