What has Pleasure Done for Me? (Eccles. 2:1-11)
The word ‘pleasure’ is a kind of neutral word that usually needs an adjective or two to clarify it. We know that pleasure is something that everyone is interested in, although sometimes it can be very elusive. Years ago, I heard a Christian singing a song which contained these lines: I walked a mile with Pleasure; She chatted all the way; But left me none the wiser For all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow; And ne’er a word said she; But, oh! The things I learned from her, When Sorrow walked with me. As far as I could find out on the Internet, the author (Robert Browning Hamilton) was described as an amateur poet who lived on the east coast of America in the late decades of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century. I don’t think we can find a collection of his works anywhere. But these lines have become well-known because they describe what many people have experienced. I wonder what Solomon would have made of them. I recall also a