Honeyed poison!

(Thomas Brooks, "London's Lamentations" 1670)

(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)

O Sirs! In the grave it is all the same--to one who has had all, and to another who has had nothing. What folly is it to lay up goods for many years, when we cannot lay up one day for the enjoyment of our goods! Jesus, who never miscalled any, calls him "fool!" who had much of the world in his hands--but nothing of God in his heart.

All the world is not proportionate to the precious soul. All of its riches cannot pacify conscience, nor secure eternity, nor prevent death, nor help you in the day of judgment. Therefore be contented with a little.

All the good things of this world, are but cold comforts. They cannot stretch to eternity; they will not go with us into the eternal world. Therefore why should the lack of such things either trouble our thoughts, or break our hearts?

The whole world is but . . .
  a paradise for fools,
  a beautiful but deceitful harlot,
  a dreamed sweetness,
  an ocean of gall.

There is nothing to be found in it, which has not mutability and uncertainty, vanity and vexation stamped upon it. Therefore he cannot be truly happy who enjoys it; nor can he be miserable who lacks it. Why then should not he be contented--who has but a little of it? The greatest outward happiness is but honeyed poison; and therefore do not mutter or murmur because you have but little of the world.

Ah, what fools are those who spend their time and strength in following after these butterflies: the honors, profits, and pleasures of this world--which will all perish in the using!

He who makes the world his god--shall find it to be a broken cistern, a shadow, a shell, a nothing. But he who finds contentment in having little of the world, and much of Jesus--has found the pearl of great price!

A little of the world, will satisfy a man who has Jesus for his portion.
He who has much of the world, and nothing of Jesus, is miserable.
But he who has nothing of the world, and all of Jesus, is truly rich!

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said: Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Hebrews 13:5

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