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If this be true — and, being part of the Word of God, it must be true — then the world of pleasure is a region of death, and a life of pleasure is a living death. These are strange tidings for those who live only for pleasure, and who boast that they alone, of all mankind, enjoy life.

I. WHO IS MEANT BY THE PERSON THAT LIVETH IN PLEASURE? And this point does require explanation; for the word "pleasure," is one strangely abused; it has quite a different meaning in different companies, and among different men. There are pleasures in science, pleasures in sin; pleasures in holiness here, and in heaven, we know, there are pleasures for evermore. "Now, she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." Now this is evidently a character just the reverse; that of one who trusteth not in God, who neglects supplication and prayers. The same character is further described more at length in the eleventh and the thirteenth verses: wantonness, idleness, wandering about from house to house, tattling, the spirit of busy-bodies, speaking things which they ought not — are given as characteristics of her that liveth in pleasure. The original word, "liveth in pleasure," is very peculiar, and is used in only one other place in the New Testament, namely, in James, James 5:5. Now, in that passage of St. James, he is addressing the wealthy, and the luxurious: "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that; shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten." Then, in the fifth verse, "Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter": where the word that is translated "ye have been wanton," is the very same word with that which, in our text, is rendered "liveth in pleasure": and the whole passage strikingly describes what kind of character is intended. Thus it is plain already, that to live in pleasure, is to live without trust or faith in God, without constant prayer; in wantonness, idleness, trifling, the pride of wealth; in luxury, sensuality, and self-indulgence. This is the life of worldly pleasure. But there are yet many other Scriptures which describe the life of pleasure; and I am anxious you should feel the Scriptural force of the subject. Thus, in the prophet Ames, in the sixth chapter: "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of nations, to whom the house of Israel came," etc. Again you see the spirit of the child of pleasure, he makes himself "at ease," he "puts far away the evil day": he is self-indulgent, luxurious, gay, and jovial; he feels not for the affliction of God's afflicted people. In the book of Job, we have another description of men living in worldly pleasure — in his twenty-first chapter: "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed:is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them." Here, again, you see the life of pleasure to be a life of unsanctified prosperity, festivity, mirth, wealth; with the spirit of infidelity mocking at religion, asking, what good in prayer — what end to serve God? Oh, ye that have lived in pleasure, does not your conscience feel, "My life is detected; my character has been described"? So in our Lord's parable; the rich man, who fared sumptuously every day, and was clothed in purple and fine linen, was evidently a man of pleasure — luxurious, self-indulgent, fond of dress. The city of Sodom was a city of pleasure. Then think of Babylon, once filled with the gayest of the gay; see that city of pleasure described in the prophet Isaiah: "Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take the mill-stones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers," etc. And let none think that the Scriptural description of one that liveth in pleasure applies only to the rich and the great of this world. But the temptation is common to all ranks, persons in middle life, and persons in the lowest walks of life, may be found to live continually in pleasure. This do all the intemperate. Oh, what sums the poor and labouring classes spend in the present day on needless, noxious, inflammatory drink!

II. Then this is God's judgment of the state of such "SHE THAT LIVETH IN PLEASURE" — WHOEVER LIVETH IN PLEASURE — "IS DEAD WHILE ALIVE." Now that is the sentiment, or rather the sentence, of God Himself. "'What does it mean?' She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth': — how can one be dead while alive?" Think of that serious, pious Christian, once in the circle of your acquaintance, once a friend, and even a brother; but now he seems as one dead to all your pleasures, dead to the world, dead indeed unto sin. You say in scorn, that you might as well ask a dead man as ask him to join your worldly pleasure, he has become what you term a poor lifeless creature; he is buried alive. How true, how just, how striking that description! The dead neither move, nor see, nor hear, nor smell, nor feel. Your heart moves not in love to God; your mind's eye sees no suitableness in the Saviour; you hear not His voice, you perceive no fragrance in His name, like that of ointment poured forth; you feel not the constraining force of His dying love. Then death is, further, a state of insensibility and helplessness. But further still, "She that liveth in pleasure, is dead while she liveth," because under sentence of death. If a criminal were convicted of murder, or some capital crime, and sentenced to death, in the interval between his sentence and his execution he is considered as dead in the eye of the law. But are you afraid that you shall now lose all pleasure? You will lose the phantom, and gain the substance; you will throw away the counterfeit, and receive genuine gold; you will drop worldly pleasure, which is connected with death, which has death inseparably tied to it, and enjoy spiritual pleasure, which is connected with eternal life. But I had not meant to say much more which might seem harsh to those who will still be of the world; I was endeavouring to lead those who are desirous of coming out of the world to come into new life. "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Then how noble, sublime, and glorious, are the objects with which religion is conversant. I add but another thought. Religious pleasures are the best, for they have the approving smile of God on them now, and they can be carried with the soul into another world, and there be ripened into perfection.

(J. Hambleton, M. A.)

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KJV: But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.

WEB: But she who gives herself to pleasure is dead while she lives.