p. 30 | Painful Regrets

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 11, 1871

Painful Regrets.

Bulwer, a man of genius, and greatly admired by some, said in a letter to a gentleman in Boston, in 1843: “I have closed my career as a writer of fiction. I am gloomy and unhappy. I have exhausted the powers of life, chasing pleasure where it is not to be found.”

How much better if Bulwer had discovered his mistake at an earlier period! Had he employed his gifted mind in strengthening the cords of virtue, in repressing unholy passions instead of fanning them, how different would have been his review of life!

“I am gloomy and unhappy!” Richard Baxter said no such thing at the close of his useful life. He had written much, but he had not “chased pleasure where it was not to be found.” John Bunyan made no such record at the close of his; nor did Owen, or Edwards, or Brainard, or Wesley, or Fuller, or Scott, or Payson. Men will reap as they sow, in spite of all their hopes and efforts to the contrary. We have often thought of the Italian actor in Paris. He was gloomy and unhappy, like Bulwer. He consulted a physician. His physician advised him to mingle in scenes of gayety. “Especially,” said he,

“go to the Italian theater, and if Carlina does not dispel your gloom, your case must be desperate indeed.” “Alas! sir,” replied the patient, “I myself am Carlina; and while I make all Paris full of laughter and merriment, I am dying with melancholy and chagrin.” What a commentary on those pleasures in which so many indulge to keep up the spirits and drive away melancholy!