Tag Archives: Vanity

Soap Bubbles

14 Tuesday Sep 2021

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Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Photo courtesy of John R

The following is from Mark Twain’s Autobiography (which is a beautiful book through-and-through. I am listening to it read by Bronson Pinchot, and I cannot recommend his reading sufficiently. The pacing, emphasis, tone are perfect). Susy was his daughter who died at age 24. When she was a teenager, she wrote a biography of her father:

Sept. 10, ’85.—”The other evening Clara and I brought down our new soap bubble water and we all blew soap bubles. Papa blew his soap bubles and filled them with tobacco smoke and as the light shone on then they took very beautiful opaline colors. Papa would hold them and then let us catch them in our hand and they felt delightful to the touch the mixture of the smoke and water had a singularly pleasant effect.” [Susy’s Biography]

It is human life. We are blown upon the world; we float buoyantly upon the summer air a little while, complacently showing off our grace of form and our dainty iridescent colors; then we vanish with a little puff, leaving nothing behind but a memory—and sometimes not even that. I suppose that at those solemn times when we wake in the deeps of the night and reflect, there is not one of us who is not willing to confess that he is really only a soap-bubble, and as little worth the making.

I remember those days of twenty-one years ago, and a certain pathos clings about them. Susy, with her manifold young charms and her iridescent mind, was as lovely a bubble as any we made that day—and as transitory. She passed, as they passed, in her youth and beauty, and nothing of her is left but a heartbreak and a memory. That long-vanished day came vividly back to me a few weeks ago when, for the first time in twenty-one years, I found myself again amusing a child with smoke-charged soap-bubbles.

Richard Sibbes, The Backsliding Sinner 3.8

10 Friday Sep 2021

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If these things are true, then what must we do? If this is what is entailed in repentance, then we must consider how far we fall short of repentance. It is interesting that Sibbes does not ask the question, see whether you fall short. Luther says in his famous 95 Theses that the Christian life is all one of repentance. And there was a saying of the Puritans that we must repent of our repentance. 

Use 1. Let us therefore enter into our own souls, and examine ourselves, how far forth we are guilty of this sin, and think we come so far short of repentance. 

He draws out one element of their sin: trust, or boasting in the creature:

For the ten tribes here, the people of God, when they repented, say, ‘Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses.’ He speaks comparatively, as trusted in. 

Therefore, let us take heed of that boasting, vain-glorious disposition, arising from the supply of the creature. Saith God, ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom; neither let the mighty man glory in his might: let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth this, that I am the Lord, which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth,’ &c., Jer. 9:23, 24.

This is sinful, because our glory is to be elsewhere:

Let a man glory that he knows God in Christ to be his God in the covenant of grace; that he hath the God of all strength, the King of kings and Lord of lords to be his: who hath all other things at his command, who is independent and all-sufficient. 

If a man will boast, let him go out of himself to God, and plant himself there; and for other things, take heed the heart be not lift up with them.

He now delineates why boasting or trust in the creature is sinful:

1. Consider what kind of thing boasting is. It is idolatry, for it sets the creature in the place and room of God.

2. And it is also spiritual adultery, whereby we fix our affections upon the creature, which should be placed on God; as it is in James, ‘Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?’ &c., James 4:4.

These last two explanations of the sinfulness of trusting in the creature draw upon a doctrine known as the “noetic effect” of sin: the way in which sin affects our thoughts and affections and perceptions. 

3. Habakkuk calls it drunkennness, Hab. 2:4, 5, for it makes the soul drunk with sottishness and conceitedness, so as a man in this case is never sober, until God strip him of all.

4. And then again, it puts forth the eye of the soul. It is a kind of white, that mars the sight. When a man looks to Asshur, horses, and to outward strength, where is God all this while? These are so many clouds, that they cannot see God, but altogether pore upon the creature. He sees so much greatness there, that God seems nothing. But when a man sees God in his greatness and almightiness, then the creature is nothing, Job 42:6. But until this be, there is a mist and blindness in the eye of the soul.

When we have identified the defects and limitations of our repentance, and have come to see the extent to which we still rely upon the creature, we must seek a change:

And when we have seen our guiltiness this way (as who of us in this case may not be confounded and ashamed of relying too much on outward helps?), then let us labour to take off our souls from these outward things, whether it be strength abroad or at home. 

We must not think that this reformation will come from our own devices:

Which that we may do, we must labour for that obedience which our Saviour Christ exhorts us unto in self-denial, Mat. 16:24, not to trust to our own devices, policy, or strength, wit, will, or conceits, that this or that may help us, nor anything. 

He makes an observation about the relationship between justification and sanctification: in both we cannot trust in ourselves: 

Make it general; for when conversion is wrought, and the heart is turned to God, it turns from the creature, only using it as subordinate to God. We see, usually, men that exalt themselves in confidence, either of strength, of wit, or whatsoever, they are successless in their issue.

It is a principle with God to thwart the creature who seeks to itself over the Creator:

For God delights to confound them, and go beyond their wit, as we have it, Isa. 30:3. They thought to go beyond God with their policy, they would have help out of Egypt, this and that way. 

What then does this look like? Does this mean that we should neglect any effort of our own? Some sort of “let go and let God” transformation? No. This would be relying upon the creature by ignoring obedience to what God has directed.

Oh, saith the prophet, but for all this, God is wise to see through all your devices; secretly hereby touching them to the quick, as sottish persons, who thought by their shallow brains to go beyond God. You think religious courses, and the obedience God prescribeth to you, to be idle, needless courses; but, notwithstanding, God is wise. He will go beyond you, and catch you in your own craft.

He now proves the point with biblical examples:

 ‘Therefore, the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion,’ Isa. 30:3. Thus God loves to scatter Babels fabrics, Gen. 11:8, and holds that are erected in confidence of human strength against him. He delights to catch the wise in their own craft, to beat all down, lay all high imaginations and things flat before him, that no flesh may glory in his sight. There is to this purpose a notable place in Isaiah: ‘Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks,’ Isa. 50:11. For they kindled a fire, and had a light of their own, and would not borrow light from God: ‘Walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled.’ But what is the conclusion of all? ‘This shall ye have of mine hand.’ I dare assure you of this, saith the prophet. ‘You shall lie down in sorrow.’ Those that walk by the light and spark of their own fire, this they shall have at God’s hands: ‘they shall lie down in sorrow.’

He cautions against taking the counsel of your age. There is always some sort of “religious” or “spiritual” wisdom which is popular in any time or place. But we are not to trust in these things. Pilgrim’s Progress has a notable picture of this error when the smooth talking Worldly Wiseman misleads Christian and draws him out of the way.

Sibbes comes to an exhortation. There is a school of thought which counsels that such exhortations should always be addressed as “You.” I prefer the method of Sibbes here to use the “we”: Let us. He is not standing above the congregant but alongside. I know these traps and errors so well because I have wrestled with him. Come with me and I will show you through:

Let us therefore take heed of carnal confidence. 

Carnal confidence is an abstraction. To say this and nothing more is to say nothing sensible. The abstraction is fine to introduce an idea, but it must be followed up with something concrete: What does that “carnal confidence” look like in practice?

You have a number who love to sleep in a whole skin, and will be sure to take the safest courses, as they think, not consulting with God, but with ‘flesh and blood.’ It might be instanced in stories of former times, how God hath crossed emperors, and great men in this kind, were it not too tedious. 

In Sibbes’ day there was great and often violent conflict over religious disputes: At this time, one’s religion and one’s political allegiance were not easily separable. The religious disputes had very tangible political consequences. Thus, some would seek to be of no firm religious position so as to avoid any political difficulty. The same would be one now who religious convictions drift with the latest popular conceit. The rapid change in doctrinal statements beginning in the early 20th century would be this same process in modern garb:

But for present instance, you have many who will be of no settled religion. Oh, they cannot tell, there may be a change. Therefore they will be sure to offend neither part. This is their policy, and if they be in place, they will reform nothing. Oh, I shall lay myself open to advantages, and stir up enemies against me. And so they will not trust God, but have carnal devices to turn off all duty whatsoever. It is an ordinary speech, but very true, policy overthrows policy. It is true of carnal policy. 

But to do this is not a way to safety:

When a man goes by carnal rules to be governed by God’s enemy and his own, with his own wit and understanding, which leads him to outward things, this kind of policy overthrows all policy, and outward government at length. Those that walk religiously and by rule, they walk most confidently and securely, as the issue will shew. Therefore, consider that, set God aside, all is but vanity. And that,

First, In regard they do not yield that which we expect they should yield. There is a falsehood in the things. They promise this and that in shows, but when we possess them, they yield it not. As they have no strength indeed, so they deceive.

2. Then, also, there is a mutability in them; for there is nothing in the world but changes. There is a vanity of corruption in them. All things at last come to an end, save God, who is unchangeable.

He will conclude here with the vanity of the creature. This final section is a plea to not trust in the creature, because the creature will disappoint us. The repentance concerned a trust in the creature and not God. In this section, he is pleading with us to avoid the sin in the first place. 

To bring us to this point he uses a combination of logical argument and emotional persuasion. 

3. Then again, besides the intrinsical vanity in all outward things, and whatsoever carnal reason leads unto, they are snares and baits unto us, to draw us away from God, by reason of the vanity of our nature, vainer than the things themselves. 

Consider the sentence just quoted: The danger of the vanity is that it is a “snare and bait.” This sort of language may seem a bit distant from our experience, but physical traps to catch animals. These images would have brought to mind crushed limbs, blood, death.

Therefore take heed of confidence in anything, or else this will be the issue: we shall be worse than the things we trust. 

This is an interesting observation: If I trust in this creature, I will become worse than the creature I have trusted. How can he prove this up?

‘Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity,’ Eccles. 1:1; and man himself is lighter than vanity, saith the psalmist, Ps. 62:9. He that trusts to vanity, is worse than vanity. A man cannot stand on a thing that cannot stand itself,—stare non stante. A man cannot stand on a thing that is mutable and changeable. If he doth, he is vain with the thing. 

The argument here is quite similar to the conclusion of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 94, “Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.” A human being who has been corrupted by trusting in a vain creature has become worse than even the creature.

Even as a picture drawn upon ice, as the ice dissolves, so the picture vanisheth away. So it is with all confidence in the creature whatsoever. It is like a picture upon ice, which vanisheth with the things themselves. He that stands upon a slippery thing, slips with the thing he stands on. 

Here again he relies upon a very common experience to prove his point. At this time, Europe was moving into what was know as the “Little Ice Age.” Sibbes readers or hearers would have been intimately acquainted with ice.

He then argues that this proposition is so obvious to all that one does not revelation to know that it is true. It is a point which cannot be avoided:

If there were no word of God against it, yet thus much may be sufficient out of the principles of reason, to shew the folly of trusting to Asshur, and horses, and the like.

He ends with a conclusion and a series of six exhortations in the form of “let us”:

Let this be the end of all, then, touching this carnal confidence: to beware that we do not fasten our affections too much upon any earthly thing, at home or abroad, within or without ourselves. For ‘God will destroy the wisdom of the wise,’ 1 Cor. 1:19. 

First:

Let us take heed, therefore, of all false confidence whatsoever.

Second, 

Let us use all outward helps, yet so as to rely upon God for his blessing in the use of all. And when they all fail, be of Jehoshaphat’s mind: ‘Lord, we know not what to do,’ 2 Chron. 20:12. 

The rationale: 

The creature fails us, our helps fail us; ‘but our eyes are upon thee.’ So when all outward Asshurs, and horses, and helps fail, despair not; for the less help there is in the creature, the more there is in God. As Gideon with his army, when he thought to carry it away with multitudes, God told him there were too many of them to get the victory by, lest Israel should vaunt themselves of their number, and so lessened the army to three hundred, Jud. 7:2; so it is not the means, but the blessing on the means which helps us. If we be never so low, despair not. 

Third,

Let us make God ours, who is all-sufficient and almighty, and then if we were brought a hundred times lower than we are, God will help and raise us. Those who labour not to have God, the Lord of hosts, to go out with their armies, if they had all the Asshurs and horses in the world, all were in vain. It was therefore a good resolution of Moses. Saith he to God, ‘If thy presence go not with us, carry us not hence,’ Exod. 33:15. He would not go one step forward without God. 

This last line if a fine aphorism:

So, if we cannot make God our friend to go out before us, in vain it is to go one step forward. 

Fourth,

Let us therefore double our care in holy duties, renewing our covenant with God, before the decree come out against us. The more religious, the more secure we shall be. If we had all the creatures in the world to help us, what are they but vanity and nothing, if God be our enemy! These things we know well enough for notion; but let us labour to bring them home for use, in these dangerous times abroad. 

Fifth,

Let us begin where we should, that our work may be especially in heaven. 

Sixth

Let us reform our lives, being moderately careful, as Christians should, without tempting God’s providence, using rightly all civil supports and helps seasonably, and to the best advantage; for, as was said, the carelessness herein for defence may prove as dangerous and fatal to a State, as the too much confidence and trust in them.

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, 1.8c

19 Wednesday May 2021

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6. A contrast of Callings

In this section, Swinnock returns to an expansive rather than argumentative style. Rather than make his persuasion by means of example-analogy, or application of a proposition, Swinnock also relies upon argument founded in imagery, repetition, and sound. These elements (as we can see) he places toward the beginning of the end of argument. This moving between fundamental styles and techniques does two things: (a) It keeps the argument from becoming tedious. Too much emotional repetition soon loses its effect. (b) It balances appeal to both intellect and emotion. Persuasion theory explains that some persuasion takes place through deliberation, other persuasion through an emotional response. By aiming at both “routes”, Swinnock makes his argument as persuasive as possible:

O Lord, what a foolish, silly thing is man, [This reminds me of Shakespeare, O Lord, what fools these mortals be]

to prize and take pains for husks before bread, [Luke 15:16]

vanity before solidity, [Eccl. 1:2]

a shadow before the substance, [Ps. 39:6]

the world’s scraps before the costly feast, 

the dirty kennels before the crystal water of life, [Rev. 22:1]

an apple before paradise, [Gen. 3]

a mess of pottage before the birthright, [Gen. 25:29-34]

and the least fleeting and inconstant good 

before the greatest, truest, and eternal good. 

Notice that he ends the section with a repetition of “good”: inconstant good/eternal good.

a. Particular and General Callings:

Here he considers “particular” and “general” callings: Particular would have to do with the individual human. General are things applicable to all people:

Their particular callings are but about earth

—the lowest, meanest, and vilest of all the elements in these callings; 

they deal but with men and brutes; 

their gains here at best cannot be large, 

because their lives here cannot be long; [two lines end with the same phrase]

and yet how eagerly are they pursued! [break]

how closely are they followed! [note the repetition of “How C—]

how constantly are they busied about them!            

We spend our primary effort on temporary, often trivial or even grotesque matters. No matter who much we gain, it will never be very much and will not be kept. The best we can acquire is an appearance but never the substance. 

General Callings: what is our duty toward God. The repetition of “their” does a great deal to hold this following complex sentence together:

Their general callings are about their souls, 

their eternal salvations; 

in these they have to do with the blessed God, 

the lovely Saviour, 

in communion with whom is heaven upon earth; 

their gains here are above their thoughts, 

and beyond their most enlarged desires, 

no less than infinite and eternal! 

This next section praises the value of godliness. It relies primarily upon a quote from Job, which is itself quite beautiful:

The profit of godliness is invaluable above price.

‘It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof: 

It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it, 

and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.

No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls, 

for the price of wisdom is above rubies. 

The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, 

neither shall it be valued with pure gold,’ Job 28:15–20; 

The movement of these three clauses is excellent. The first clause is longer, with accents upon “L” and “C”. The section and third lines are much shorter. The second line repeats the “L”, the third line the “C”.

yet how lingeringly is this calling entered upon, 

how lazily is it followed, 

and how quickly cast off. 

He concludes with a rebuke, alluding to Galatians 3:1:

O foolish man, who hath bewitched thee, 

that thou dost thus dislike and disobey the truth?

7.         Concluding Contrasts

a.        Compared to a Hen

Having made the comparison to a hen, he then applies the image to human life with a series of seven consecutive clauses which begin with the form “The [noun]” Each clause is something ignored. He ends the whole with a comparison to a mole, which forms an inclusion to hen.

I cannot more fitly resemble man than to a silly hen, 

which, though much good corn lie before her, takes little notice of it, but still scrapes in the earth. 

The favour of God, 

the promises of the gospel, 

the covenant of grace, 

the blood of Christ, 

the embroidery of the Spirit, 

the life of faith, 

the hope of heaven, 

joy in the Holy Ghost, are laid before man;

 yet he overlooks them all, 

and lives like a mole, 

digging and delving in the earth.

b. Though men see:

This is a remarkably complex sentence, built around two long sections introduced by “though” and the verb “to see” which leads to a “yet” which concludes the whole. Though men see the danger yet they will take no warning.

Though men see:

Though men see before their eyes a period and end of all earthly perfections, 

that the beauty, 

bravery of all earthly things is 

but like a fair picture drawn on ice, 

quickly perishing; 

that their riches and estates are but like snow, 

which children take much pains to rake and scrape together to make a ball of, which upon the sun’s shining on, 

            it presently melteth away; 

though they see daily

though they see daily men that hoarded up silver, 

and wrought hard for wealth, [Prov. 2:1-6]

hurried away into the other world, 

leaving all their heaps behind them; 

yet they will take no warning:

yet they will take no warning, 

but, as the silly lark, 

still play with the feather in the glass till they are caught 

and destroyed by the fowler. 

This is an ironic allusion to Proverbs 1:17, “For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird” – a bird can see the net and won’t be caught.

c. Failing to seek

There is a theme in the Bible of our need to seek. We are to seek wisdom: Proverbs 2:1. Jesus says that if we seek, we shall find. Matt. 7:7, et cetera. God expects us to seek. But some draw the wrong conclusion from all things not being made available without effort:

Men wrong themselves, and misconstrue God, who, as if he had hidden those things because he would have them sought, and laid the other open for neglect, bend themselves only to the seeking of those earthly commodities, and do no more mind heaven than if there were none. If we would imagine a beast to have reason, how could he be more absurd in his choice?

d. Three concluding examples:

At best, we are like a king bound in golden chains:

What a beast is he to love his silver above his soul, and lose his God for a little corruptible gold. While he lives, like the king of Armenia, by Marc. Anton., he is a close prisoner in golden fetters; and when he dieth, this worldling may say to his darling, as Cornelius Agrippa to his familiar spirit near his end, Abi, perdita bestia, quæ me perdidisti, Begone, thou wicked wretch, thou hast undone me.

If a king would consider this, how much more the rest of us:

It was good counsel which was given John, the third king of Portugal, to meditate a quarter of an hour every day on that divine sentence, (and oh that, reader, I could persuade thee to it!) ‘What will it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?’ Mat. 16. 

A philosopher and a blacksmith:

I have read of a philosopher, who, living near a blacksmith, and hearing him up every morning at his hammer and anvil, before he could get out of his bed to his book, professed himself much ashamed that such an ignoble trade as a smith’s should be more diligently attended than his more serious and excellent studies. 

This final application is interesting. Throughout, he has been addressing the reader almost as if the reader was one who rarely sought godliness. But here in the end, he makes a direct appeal: Why are we so easily distracted as they are?

What sayest thou, reader; dost thou not blush to think that worldlings are more busy and laborious about the low things, the rattles and trifles of this life, than thou art about the high affairs of God and thy soul, the noble and serious concernments of eternity?

An apology for vanity

18 Wednesday Nov 2020

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Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men, to be talking of themselves and their own past actions; and I shall indulge it without being tiresome to others, who, through respect to age, might conceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing, since this may be read or not as any one pleases. And, lastly (I may as well confess it, since my denial of it will be believed by nobody), perhaps I shall a good deal gratify my own vanity. Indeed, I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, “Without vanity I may say,” &c., but some vain thing immediately followed. Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others that are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.

Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

Schopenhauer on Happiness, 4: A Comparison with St. Paul

26 Sunday Jan 2020

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He goes onto define happiness in terms of the absence of pain rather than obtaining pleasure:

To estimate a man’s condition in regard to happiness, it is necessary to ask, not what things please him, but what things trouble him; and the more trivial these things are in themselves, the happier the man will be. To be irritated by trifles, a man must be well off; for in misfortunes trifles are unfelt.

Now this is a seemingly paradoxical statement, but it makes some sense. If one is starving to death, trivial things will not matter. To even take notice of trivial inconvenience is evidence of privilege. If I am starving, I will not much care if something is out of place: I will care about obtaining food. When one comes to their death bed, even bill collectors are irrelevant.

This observation is true, but I don’t see how that is really conducive to any sort of happiness. I would think one should draw the opposite conclusion, especially from Schopenhauer’s ready pessimism. Seeing that we are all soon to die, and everything will decay, why ignore all trivialities and look at them now as we will look at them upon our death bed. We will soon enough be dead, so why sweat anything at the present?

In the opposite direction, he counsels we should set out happiness very few:

Care should be taken not to build the happiness of life upon a broad foundation–not to require a great many things in order to be happy. For happiness on such a foundation is the most easily undermined; it offers many more opportunities for accidents; and accidents are always happening.

Paul makes an argument which has a similar structure:

1 Timothy 6:6–10 (ESV)

 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

The similarity lies in the realization that we will die and this world is uncertain. Therefore, we should expect to obtain very little from this life. Indeed, an overarching desire to have happiness fixed upon the fleeting things of this world will lead to ruin and sorrow.

But Paul couches the argument in a different context. Schopenhauer sees life as transitory, but there is no sense of redemption of the transitory. Paul sets content on very little within the context of godliness. The Christian hope is not that this world in its present cursed form will be made permanent, but rather that the world will be remade:

Romans 8:18 (ESV)

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

It is worth noting that the Hebrew word for “glory” is a word which has the sense of “heavy” or substantial. Paul is writing to the Romans in Greek (and he next raises the issue of the vanity of the creation), but the concept of glory developed in the OT would affect his thinking.

And so to compare and contrast Schopenhauer and Paul: They both see life as resting on vanity; the world will decay and we will die. But realize that the things of this world cannot be trusted. The difference is that Schopenhauer sees the decay the as the end. There is not any real point in this world except perhaps to be made sadder and wiser:

Men of any worth or value soon come to see that they are in the hands of Fate, and gratefully submit to be moulded by its teachings. They recognize that the fruit of life is experience, and not happiness; they become accustomed and content to exchange hope for insight; and, in the end, they can say, with Petrarch, that all they care for is to learn:–

When we are actually doing some great deed, or creating some immortal work, we are not conscious of it as such; we think only of satisfying present aims, of fulfilling the intentions we happen to have at the time, of doing the right thing at the moment. It is only when we come to view our life as a connected whole that our character and capacities show themselves in their true light; that we see how, in particular instances, some happy inspiration, as it were, led us to choose the only true path out of a thousand

But it is hard to say that there is anything good in this wisdom:

Ecclesiastes 2:12–17 (ESV)

 12 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. 13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Wisdom is very little worth if the only thing it can do is make me aware that I will die and all things are pointless. Merely managing my sorrows and disappointments may give me some equanimity; or it may just be boring. How do you measure the relative “happiness” of a life spent avoiding pain (Schopenhauer), plunging into pleasure and pain (Shelley). That seems more a matter of taste and temperament than better or worse.

It is at this point, the Christian view is profoundly different. Yes, the world is vain; we will die: the creation, after all, is under a curse. Therefore, let us be content with food and clothing in this world; and – here is the distinction – and hope for redemption:

Romans 8:19–25 (ESV)

19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Schopenhauer can at most help one whistle past the graveyard. It is a sort of sour grapes philosophy. You’ll just make me sad, anyway.

The Christian answer however takes an equally steel-eyed view of the world and its pain and says that it will be transformed. The answer matches perfectly to the loss. That is either the mark of its truth or its utter fraudulence. The resurrection is the perfect answer to death. Death is a horror turned inside-out.

(There is another issue here: how can any future answer to individual horrors of this life? How can disease which ravages a child, or slavery, or abuse be answered for?  Too often the answer sounds like, Let me beat you senseless, but I’ll make it okay by giving you some money afterwards. That is not the right answer; nor is it the promise of glory. But that is for another time.)

Schopenhauer on Happiness (3c, Ecclesiastes)

23 Thursday Jan 2020

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Schopenhauer quite rightly notes that all is impermanent and all will decay. His solution is to reject all hope and expectation and thus avoid disappointment. As we have seen from Shakespeare and Shelley, this is not the only potential response. One could bemoan the tragedy of loss (Macbeth), receive the knowledge with equanimity (Tempest), or realize there will be loss and thus hold more tightly to and cherish what is good knowing that it will all soon be lost (Shakespeare & Shelley).

Another response is the redemption of all that is lost. The book of Ecclesiastes famously declares, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”. Eccl. 1:2 Vanity translates a Hebrew word Hebel, which refers to something which is transient, insubstantial, like a breath or mist. From that, the writer draws the conclusion that nothing is world is sufficient to bring contentment to anyone in this life:

Ecclesiastes 2:10–11 (ESV)

10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

That however does not end the matter:

Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 (ESV)

13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

That matter of bringing everything into judgment may sound ominous. However, what it means in the context of the world being temporal is that the world is also meaningful: There will be a date on which all things which be confirmed as having eternal significance.  The solution to the temporality of the world is not renounce the world and all its good; nor is it to love in despair. Rather, knowing that the temporal world will be judged and remade as a permanent matter will make this world and life meaningful.

In the 15th chapter of his first letter to the Corinthian church Paul lays out the Christian doctrine of the resurrection, wherein even the human body will not be lost but will be remade in an unchanging manner:

1 Corinthians 15:42 (ESV)

 42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.

In light of the resurrection, our life and work is not meaningless:

1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV)

 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

By stating their labor is not in vain, Paul is underscoring the permanence of human existence. The mutability of the world is not the last word. The Christian sees the world as temporal, along with the Buddhist, but rather than seeing the end as dissolution, sees the end as permanence:

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (ESV)

 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Therefore, happiness is not contingent upon renunciation, nor must one “cross-fingers”, and know that the joy will be destroyed. Rather, the goal is set hope upon permanent joys.

Counseling from Psalm 39, Part 2

25 Wednesday Oct 2017

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Continuing on with the prayer of verses 4-6. Weiser, in his comment upon this prayer, states as follows:

…in the midst of his physical and mental suffering. It is in this connection that the knowledge of the transient nature and futility of every human life and of all human effort in the sight of God is first fully brought to light. …for it is inly in that perspective which sees everything as God sees it that the only trustworthy criterion and compass for the true nature of man can be found….The most common prejudice, from which the psalmist himself did not escape, is the general tendency to overestimate one’s one importance. Man sees his relation to the reality of God in its right proportions only if that prejudice is radically eliminated — if  man sub specie aeternitatis Dei which he grasps in the light of his end of his life, comes to realize that his life and work are ‘much ado about nothing’, and has lost his rebellious self-assurance. The fact that the worshipper is so serious-minded and so courageous that he is even prepared to accept the radical result of that perspective which ruthlessly puts an end to any attempt at trying to hold on to what is only ephemeral.

Artur Weiser, The Psalms, trans. Herbert Hartwell (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1962), 329.

Our affections, our love and hate are judgments, evaluations: when we love a thing, we think it somehow good and desirable. Our hatred sees something as dangerous, loathsome and to be avoided or destroyed. The less intense responses are the same quality though not of the same quantity.

The distress of the Psalmist thus lies in his false evaluation of the circumstance. It does not mean that the difficulty which he faces is not real. Indeed, the reality is necessary because God is using it as a means of transforming the Psalmist. The trouble is not in the objective thing itself, but in the inability to judge it rightly.

Make me know how vain all this life is! Make me know how fleeting are my days. Let me see that not only my own life, but all this great world are shadows.

We fight over things we think valuable. I knew of a case involving two homeless men fighting (to the point of extreme violence) over the “right” to comb through certain trashcans. I dare say that no one else even thought about such a “right”. But to these men, the trash was valuable. To those who walked by everyday, it was trash.

The Psalmist has been in distress because he was unable to see through his pain and circumstance. Only by seeing it as God sees it could he rightly judge the thing.

This Scripture applies this principle in a number of ways. For example, James — in a section concerning conflict — writes:

James 4:13–16 (ESV)

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Our obtaining wealth, our business is all in the hands of God: and even those efforts are fleeting, because we are mere breath. It is “arrogant” to think otherwise. In James 3:16, he has said that such “selfish ambition” is “demonic” and results in “every vile practice”. James 3:15.

Psalm 39 tells us that even if we gain such wealth, that we have been in “turmoil” “for nothing” and we do “not know who will gather”.  Solomon in Ecclesiastes speaks of the vanity of gathering wealth to leave it to another. Ecco. 2:18-19.

 

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation L

02 Friday Jun 2017

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(From William Spurstowe’s 1666, The Spiritual Chymist. The previous post in this series may be found here)

Upon the Vanity of Wishes

True and perfect happiness is a good with neither the light Nature can discover nor its endeavors obtain; it being as impotent to the acquiring of it, as it is blind to the beholding of it. And yet there is nothing in which man less apprehends himself at a loss than in this: of fully contriving at least, if not effecting, his own happiness.

Who is it that is not confident, that if he might have the liberty of his options to wish whatever he would, and to have them turned into realities for him, but that he could readily frame to himself a condition as full of happiness as the sun is of light or the sea of water?

What poor and contemptible thoughts would he have of all that glory of the world which the devil showed to Christ as a bait when he tempted him the worse of sins, to those stately schemes and representations which he could suppose to be the objects of his delight? (Matthew 4:8-9)

If wishes were the measure of happiness, what is it that the boundless imagination of man would not suppose and desire? What strange changes would he forthwith make in the universe, in leveling of mountains, in raising of valleys, in altering climates and elements themselves? Happily he might wish that the sea were turned into a delicious bath, in which he might sport himself without any fear of drowning; that the rocks were so many polished diamonds; the sands as so many fair pearls to beautify it; and the islands as so many may retiring houses of pleasure to betake himself unto he pleased.

He might that all the trees of the earth were as the choicest plants of paradise, every one of which might at his beck down own their branches and tender their ripe fruit unto him.

And thus multiply his wishes until every spire of grass and every dust of earth have undergone some remarkable mutation according to the lust of his fancy, and yet be as far from any satisfaction in his desires or rest in his thoughts. As the apes in the fable were from warmth [became warm], which finding a glow-worm on a cold night, gathered some sticks together and blew themselves breathless to kindle a little fire.

For all these supposed gayeties are not the perfection but the disease of the fancy, which has (as I may so speak) which has (as I may so speak) a bulimia in respect of objects, as some corrupt and vitiated appetites have in respect of meats, who thought they eat much are yet never satisfied.

And hence it is, that men who enjoy plenty and are far from having any just cause of complaint of want [they are not lacking anything], do yet, as unsatisfied persons, feed themselves with fond suppositions of being in such an estate and condition of which they can have no possibility, much less any real hope to obtain. The ambitious man pleases himself in thinking how bravely he could King-it, if he were but upon the throne, and how far he would out strip all other princes that have been before him for state and glory: he fancies what pleasures he would have for his recreation, what meats for his table, what persons for his attendants, what laws for his government, and then, Absalom-like, he wishes in himself, O that I were king in Israel. (2 Samuel 15:4)

The covetous person whose heart is set upon riches, never ceases in the midst of his abundance to desire more. Riches and his desires still keep at a distance, as they come on, so do his desire come on too, the one can never overtake the other, no more than the hinder wheels of a coach can overtake the former.

If she should, as Peter, cast his hook into the sea and take up the first first that came up with a stater or piece of money in his mouth, how eagerly straightways would eh wish to take a second and then a third, yea, how would he still renew his wishes so as sooner to empty the sea of all its fish than to satisfy his desires with accumulated treasures.

But are these, O vain man, the highest wishes with you could impede you present enjoyments and so make your speedy flight unto perfect happiness? What if all these suppositions and wishes, which are (as I may so speak) the creations of fancy were real existence? Yea, what if your condition did as far exceed the pump of all human imagination, as Solomon did the fame that was spread abroad of him? (1 Kings 10:6-7)

Might I not say as David did, O ye sons of men, how long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing? (Psalm 4:2) Are these things for which Angels will give you the right of hand of fellowship? Or will this glory make them stoop to become ministering spirits unto you? Though you may conceive as highly of yourselves as the Prince of Tyre did of himself, who said he was a god and sat in the seat of God (Ezekiel 28:2), yet they will look upon you no better than as gilded dust and ashes.

That which they adore, and with wonder look into, (1 Peter 1:12), is not the happiness of the worldling, but of believers who are blessed — not according to what they ask or desire, but far above whatever could have entered into the thoughts of men and angels to conceive. (1 Cor. 2:9)

Who could ever have said to God, as Haman did to Ahasuerus, if he had been asked, What shall be done to the man whom God delighteth to honor? (Esther 6:6).

Let the foundation and cornerstone of his happiness be laid in the exinanition [an emptying, enfeebling] of the Son of God (Phil. 2:6-8), let him come from heaven to earth to purchase it with his blood: let his nature be dignified by being personally united uno the Divine Nature, let him be a co-heir with him who is the brightness of the Father’s glory (Romans 8:17; Hebrews 1:3), sit with him upon the same throne (Romans 8:17), and be conformed to his likeness (Romans 8:29): let him stand forever the highest and sweetest relations uno the three most glorious persons ,having God to be his Father, his Son to be his Elder Brother, and the Holy Spirit to be his Friend and Comforter: are not these things, as may pose angels to tell whether is the greater wonder or the mercy?

May it not be truly said, that omnipotency itself is exhausted so that there remains neither power in God to do, nor wisdom to find out a great happiness than this, which he has vouchsafed to man in his lowest condition?

Can there be any addition made by the narrow conceptions of weak creatures Let me therefore expostulate with Christians whose happiness in Christ is compelte, and yet, as if there were an emptiness in their condition, are still hankering in their minds after the world’s vanities and wishing, like carnal Israelites to eat of the fleshpots and garlic of Egypt. (Numbers 11:4-5).

Is there nothing in this world which you cannot find made up to you in Christ? Are not all the scattered comforts which can be had only in the creature by retail, parceled out some to one and some to another, to be had fully in Christ, in whom they are summed up, as broken particulars are in the foot of an account?

Though he be a bonus formaliter simplex, a good formally simple; yet he is eminentur multiplex, a good eminently manifold. And there is more to be had in Christ than can be had any-way out of him [that is apart from Christ]. Who, as the first figure in a number stands for more than all the figures that can bee added unto to it. Whom, saith holy David, have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. (Psalm 73:5).

Surely, if heaven which has legions of beauties and perfections in it, yield nothing worthy of his love and affection but God and Christ, we may well conclude, that Earth, which is a void of God as heaven is full, can have nothing in it that is to be desired by us. Why they should any, in whom Christ is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27) be as the men of the world, who cry out, Who will show us any good? (Psalm 4:6)
For them to be unsatisfied who feed upon vanities is no wonder; but for those who possess him that is and has all things, it is strange that they should seek anything out of him [apart from him]. Quid ultra querit cui amnia suus conditor fit? aut quid ei sufficit, cui ipse non sufficit? What can he seek further (saith Prosper) to him God is made everything?

Or what will suffice him, to whom He is not sufficient?

I know but one wish that any believer has to make, and that is the wish of St. John, with which he seals up the Book of God, as the common desire of all the faithful, with which I shall shut up this meditation, as the best of wishes,

Come Lord Jesus (Rev. 22:20)
even so come as thou has promised
Come quickly
In whose present there is fulness of joy
And at whose right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11).

Anne Bradstreet, Meditation XXXIII

16 Sunday Oct 2016

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Much labor wearies the body

and many thoughts oppress the mind:

Man aimes at profit by the one

And content in the other;

But often misses both,

And find nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit.

 

Ecclesiastes 2:11

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditations XXXII

02 Tuesday Aug 2016

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On the Molting of the Peacock:

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Such is the gaiety of the peacock’s plumes, that Nazianzen (as I find him cited) says, that when he spreads his starry wheal the peahen is provoked to lust. And the naturalists who describe his properties affirm that he is ambitious of praise and affects to show his beauty, when commended by spectators, in a stately tread and free displaying of his various colors against the sun which casts a luster on them.

How short a continuance is this glory? How small is the distance between his delight to expose himself to the view of others and his shame to be looked upon by any? For no sooner do those specious feathers in which he prided himself fall from him, but he walks sorrowfully and has then (as observed) latronis passum, the shifting pace of a thief who flies the light and the eye which beholds him. He is dejected with the sense of loss, as one that is robbed by the autumn of his summer’s riches.

Can we have now, though we should make it our study, a more clear comment upon the text of St. Paul’s, The fashion, or the figure, of this world passes away? Or a more apt emblem of worldly men’s behavior so it does, then this pensive bird affords unto us?

What is the world with which men are so passionately enamored with but a surface, an outside, not so much of beauty as a lust — as St. John styles it? And what are those transient felicities of honor, fame, riches by which some are distinguished from others but so many crowns of breath that nothing of any firmness or solid consistency? What are they but so many painted bubbles which shine and break?

O methinks I never wanted words till now to express their emptiness! How shall I say something that may speak them less than nothing?

And yet in what admiration are these thing held with most? How do men affect to have the eyes of others to behold them? How highly do they who want any of these specious vanities thirst after them? And how hardly can any bear the loss and privation of what this way they enjoy.

And yet this only is certain, that all these things are most uncertain. The sick man’s pulse is not more uneven in its beatings; the leaves of trees are more various in their falling; or the feathers of birds more facile in their molting that the fancy and pomp of all earthly greatness is frail in its continuance.

How many accidents do make a change where men do promise themselves the most firm stability? How too is Job’s hedge pulled up, who said he should die in his nest and multiply his days as the sand? And David’s mountain removed, and he troubled, who pleased himself in his strength? What strange alterations and does the frowns of the prince in a courtier’s glory? Haman’s plume of honor and riches were lifted up and spread to the wonder of beholders, upon the change of Ahasuerus his countenance flag and trail in the dirt like the peacock’s train in a storm, yea drop and fall off; leaving him exposed to the utmost of shame and ignominy.

What steadfastness had the rich man in his great possessions beyond his own conceit? He promised himself the rest of many years, and yet lived not to see another morning. Death made an unexpected break upon his designed projects; and while he thinks to imp his wings for an higher flight and mount, he falls as low as the grave.

Can we then make better, or more seasonable mediation, when we find our affections carried out to the prizing and seeking of such perishing vanities, then to expostulate then with ourselves? Why is my foolish heart eaten up with cares? Mine eyes robbed of sleep, mine hands wearied with unceasing labor to grasp clouds, shadows, trifles that have little of reality or worth — and less of duration? Are these the things that make angels happy? Are the robes and crowns of saints made of no other matter than that we may see in the courts of princes?

O what a poor place were heaven if it had no other riches, beauty, excellency than what might be fetched out of the bowels of the earth, or the bottom of the seas and rocks? Add but eternity to such common comforts and you turn them into burdens which cannot be borne; into a satiety that produces loathing and not delight. It being change only that makes them to be grateful, it being sometimes pleasing to want them as to have them; to lay them aside as to put them on.

it is not then wisdom for me, for everyone one to make a right judgment concerning true happiness? And to know that is one thing and not many things; and yet it is sufficient for all persons, for all places both in heaven and earth; for all times both in this life and after it.

It is ever the same, and makes us ever the same; it has no change in itself, but the communication of its growth to us and what is not grace shall be glory in heaven.

If it could decay or lose, it were not happiness but misery.

Lord therefore whatever others judge or think, make me like the wise merchant willing to sell all to buy the rich pearl, yea to contemn all for one thing necessary, and to say as David did, Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.