The Rage for Pleasure

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 1, 1861

The Rage for Pleasure

The following description of the rage for pleasure, which is more and more engrossing all classes of people, will remind the reader of the divine delineations of these very times, in which we are told that the days just preceding the coming of the Son of man should be like the days of Noah and of Lot, and men should be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God:

"There is current at this day a strong disposition to turn life into a holiday. Pleasure, pleasure, is the cry of multitudes. Invention is tortured to suggest some new form of amusement, or to give a new zest to old ones. Many do nothing else; attempt nothing else, but simply flirt from pleasure to pleasure through the live-long day. The first thing, the last, and the only thing with them is sport. They seek it now in one form and place, and now in another. Preparation for it, and engagement in it, and anticipations, engross the whole thought and time. Amusement is in order to work; to lighten its burden and enhance its reward; but must not be allowed to displace it. The industrious only know how to enjoy their leisure. The idler, the pleasure-seeker, is often a burden to himself, and always to others. To the young of both sexes I would say, have an honest business, either of the head, or the hand, all your lives; be diligent in it, and be not above any work which God in his providence shall set to your hand. Hear what the wise man saith, 'The desire of the slothful killeth him, for his hands refuse to labor.' 'He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man, and he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.' What an exact description is this passage of the sporting gentleman of this day! Pleasure, wine, and cosmetics. These are his gods. The wise man has also a word for our daughters. 'Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.' The thirty-first chapter of Proverbs has much more of the same style, a pattern certainly very unlike that seen in the belle of modern fashionable society, but as much superior as the delineator of the former excels in wisdom the contrivers and exhibitors of the latter.—Congregationalist.