Poisoned Pleasures
G. Lawson. Esther 5:13 Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. Give a whole world of pleasure to a man who loves the world and the things of it, he will soon find that something is wanted, though perhaps he does not know, so well as Haman thought he did, what it is. He finds some gall and wormwood that spread poison over his pleasures. All his abundance cannot compensate for the loss of some one thing or other that he deems essential to his happiness. The fact is that the world cannot give a right constitution to his disordered soul, or be a substitute for that Divine favour in which lies the life of our souls. (G. Lawson.) Parallel Verses KJV: Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. WEB: Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate."