At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent, Sermons
Proverbs 5:11 (first clause) What multitudes of men and women have there been who, on beds of pain, or in homes of poverty, or under strong spiritual apprehension, have "mourned at the last"! After tasting and "enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season," they have found that iniquity must meet its doom, and they have "mourned at the last." Sin makes fair promises, but breaks its word. It owns that there is a debt due for guilty pleasure, but it hints that it will not send in the bill for many years; - perhaps never: but that account has to be settled, and they who persist in sinful indulgence will find, when it is too late, that they have to "mourn at the last." This is true of - I. SLOTHFULNESS. Very pleasant to be idling when others are busy, to be following the bent of our own fancy, dallying with the passing hours, amusing ourselves the whole day long, the whole year through; but there is retribution for wasted hours, for misspent youth, for negligent and idle manhood, to be endured further on; there is self-reproach, condemnation of the good and wise, an ill-regulated mind, straitened means if not poverty, - mourning at the last. II. INTEMPERANCE. Very tempting may be the jovial feast, very fascinating the sparkling cup, Very inviting the hilarity of the festive circle; but there is the end of it all to be taken into account, not only tomorrow's pain or lassitude, but the forfeiture of esteem, the weakening of the soul's capacity for pure enjoyment, the depravation of the taste, the encircling round the spirit of those cruel fetters which "at the last" hold it in cruel bondage. III. LASCIVIOUSNESS. (See previous homily.) IV. WORLDLINESS. There is a strong temptation presented to men to throw themselves into, so as to be absorbed by, the affairs of time and sense - business, politics, literature, art, one or other of the various amusements which entertain and gratify. This inordinate, excessive, unqualified devotion to any earthly pursuit, while it is to be distinguished from abandonment to forbidden pleasure, is yet wrong and ruinous. It is wrong, for it leaves out of reckoning the supreme obligation - that which we owe to him in whom we live and move and have our being, and who has redeemed us with his own blood. It is ruinous, for it leaves us (1) without the heritage we were meant to have, and may have, in God, in Jesus Christ and his blessed service and salvation; (2) unprepared for the other and larger life which is so near to us, and to which we approach by every step we take. However pleasant be the pursuits we engage in or the prizes we win, we shall wake one day from our dream with shame and fear; we shall "mourn at the last." - C.
And thou mourn at the last. Religion has one undeniable advantage to recommend it — whatever it calls us to sacrifice or to suffer, it always ends well. On the other hand, sin has one undeniable evil to excite our aversion and horror — whatever sensual pleasures and imaginary profit attend its course, it always ends awfully.I. THE SUBJECT OF THESE REGRETS. It is a man who has disregarded through life the means employed to preserve or reclaim him. Man's instructors and reprovers may be ranked in six classes. 1. Your connections in life. Father, mother, friend, etc. 2. The Scriptures. 3. Ministers. 4. Conscience. 5. Irrational creatures. 6. The dispensations of Providence. II. THE PERIOD OF THESE REGRETS. It is a dying hour. 1. Such a period is unavoidable. 2. It cannot be far off. 3. It may be very near. 4. It is sometimes prematurely brought on by sin. Such a period, if it be not prematurely produced by irreligion, is always embittered by it. III. THE NATURE OF THESE REGRETS. This mourning has two attributes to distinguish it. 1. It is dreadful. A dying hour has been called an honest hour. 2. It is useless. To the individuals themselves, whatever it may be to others.Lessons: 1. How good is God! 2. How fallen is man! 3. How important is serious thought! (William Jay.) At the last The wise man saw the young and simple straying into the house of the strange woman. It was not what it seemed to be. Could he shed a revealing light upon it? He saw only one lamp suitable to his purpose; it was named "At the last." He held this up, and the young man's delusion was dispelled. He saw in its light the awful consequences of self-indulgence and sin. If this lamp is useful in this one case, it may be useful in others. I can only compare my text in its matchless power to Ithuriel's spear, with which, according to Milton, he touched the toad, and straightway Satan appeared in his true colours. This lamp has four sides to it.I. DEATH IS AT THE LAST. In some sense it is the last of this mortal life; it is the last of this period of trial here below; it is the last of the day of grace; it is the last of the day of mortal sin. In the light of death look upon mortal sins. The greatest of human actions will appear to be insignificant when we come to die. Look at our selfish actions in this light. How will sin then appear? II. JUDGMENT IS AT THE LAST. When we die, we die not. When a man dieth shall he live again? Ay, that he shall — for his spirit dieth never. After death comes the judgment. Look at the past, the present, the future, in the light of that judgment. III. HEAVEN IS AT THE LAST. Look on all our actions in the light of heaven. IV. HELL IS AT THE LAST. See things in that dread and dismal light, the glare of the fiery abyss. How will self-indulgence, unbelief, procrastination look in that light? ( C. H. Spurgeon.) When thy flesh and thy body are consumed If all men believed at the beginning of their courses of life what they find at the end, there would be far less power in temptation, and many would turn aside from those paths which bring them to ruin; but it is one of the peculiarities of youth that, while it has unbounded faith in certain directions, it seldom has faith in regard to mischiefs which befall disobedience. There are many reasons which conspire to make men either over-confident in the beginnings of life, or even audacious.1. The inexperience and thoughtlessness which belong to the young. Thousands there are who have taken no pains in the formation of their consciences. 2. There is a most defiant spirit in the young. 3. There is a hopefulness which frequently goes beyond all bounds. 4. There are reactions from an infelicitous way of teaching which tend to produce presumption in the young. Especially the exaggeration and indiscriminate way in which sin is often held forth. Conventional sins are held up before men as representing sinning, until there comes up a scepticism of the whole doctrine and the whole sad and melancholy experience of sinning. 5. Men are made presumptuous in sinning because they see wicked men prospering. They regard that as the refutation of half the preaching, and of almost all the advice they hear. There is a law of everlasting rectitude. There are conditions on which men's bodies will serve them happily, and there are conditions on which men's souls will serve them happily. But if a man violate these conditions, no matter how secretly, no matter how little, just as sure as there is a God in heaven, he must suffer the penalty. Every one of the wrongs which a man commits against his own soul will find him out, and administer its own penalty. There comes a time when men who are not actually worn out by excess of transgression do regain, to some extent, their moral sense. After the period of infatuation there comes, very frequently, a period of retrospection. It is alluded to in the passage now before us. The resurrection of moral sensibility comes through a variety of agencies — failure, shame, affliction, etc. Sometimes it comes too late. I beseech you, young men, believe in virtue; believe in truth; believe in honesty and fidelity; believe in honour; believe in God; believe in God's law and in God's providence. Put your trust in God, and in the faith of God, and not in the seeming of deceitful and apparently prosperous men. Whatever else you get, have peace, day by day, with your own conscience. Whoever else you offend, do not offend your God. Do what is right, and then fear no man. (H. W. Beecher.) I. WASTE OF WEALTH. It is spent to garnish the house of sin; it is so much taken from home-scenes, and legitimate pleasures and benevolence.II. WASTE OF HEALTH. Note the corruption of licentious nations, as the Turks, etc. III. WASTE OF TEARS. Mourning at the last is too late for proving the repentance to be genuine. (Anon.) I. A DISSOLUTE YOUNG MAN WITH A DECAYING BODY. The wise man foresaw the wretched physical condition to which the dissolute life of the young man whom he calls his son would lead.1. It is a sad sight to see a young man decay at all. 2. It is more sad when the physical decay has been produced by a dissolute life. II. A DISSOLUTE YOUNG MAN WITH AN ACTIVE MEMORY. 1. He remembers the many privileges he has abused. 2. He remembers the sinful scenes of his life. III. A DISSOLUTE YOUNG MAN WITH A TORTURING CONSCIENCE. 1. An agonising sense of self-blamefulness. Conscience casts all excuses to the winds; it fastens the crime home on the individual himself. 2. An agonising sense of self-ruin. The moral wail here breathes the feeling of destruction. (D. Thomas, D. D.) I. LAMENTATION FOLLOWS WANTONNESS.1. When men find their goods gone and their bodies corrupted. 2. When they see all their opportunities of doing good to soul and body gone. 3. They feel God's hand heavy on them, as being on the rack of an evil conscience. II. THE END OF WANTON COURSES IS SORROWFUL. 1. Because of pleasures past. 2. Because of present sorrows. 3. Because of pursuing pain that is gotten by disease. 4. Because of public shame. III. THE BODY ITSELF IS CONSUMED BY WANTONNESS. Because it consumes the radical humour of the body. (Francis Taylor, B. D.) People SolomonPlaces JerusalemTopics Body, Consumed, Consumption, Final, Flesh, Full, Grief, Groan, Hast, Howled, Latter, Moan, Mourn, Spent, WastedOutline 1. Solomon exhorts to wisdom3. He shows the mischief of unfaithfulness and riot 15. He exhorts to contentedness, generosity, and chastity 22. The wicked are overtaken with their own sins Dictionary of Bible Themes Proverbs 5:11 5567 suffering, emotional Library The Cords of Sin'His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.'--PROVERBS v. 22. In Hosea's tender picture of the divine training of Israel which, alas! failed of its effect, we read, 'I drew them with cords of a man,' which is further explained as being 'with bands of love.' The metaphor in the prophet's mind is probably that of a child being 'taught to go' and upheld in its first tottering steps by leading-strings. God drew Israel, though Israel did not yield … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Last Things Sinners Bound with the Cords of Sin Sinners Bound with the Cords of Sin How the Silent and the Talkative are to be Admonished. How the Rude in Sacred Learning, and those who are Learned but not Humble, are to be Admonished. Twenty Second Sunday after Trinity Paul's Thanks and Prayers for Churches. "The Truth. " Some Generals Proposed. Thirdly, for Thy Actions. The Right Understanding of the Law Second Great Group of Parables. Proverbs Links Proverbs 5:11 NIVProverbs 5:11 NLT Proverbs 5:11 ESV Proverbs 5:11 NASB Proverbs 5:11 KJV Proverbs 5:11 Bible Apps Proverbs 5:11 Parallel Proverbs 5:11 Biblia Paralela Proverbs 5:11 Chinese Bible Proverbs 5:11 French Bible Proverbs 5:11 German Bible Proverbs 5:11 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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