THE Holy Ghost through Solomon tells us that “as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool” (Eccles. vii. 6). It is characteristic of fools that they laugh at things which no man in his senses would see any reason to laugh at, therefore, we have no reason to be surprised that the Bible says that “Fools make a mock at sin” (Prov. xiv. 9). The entrance of sin into the world brought incalculable misery upon mankind. It caused man to lose God’s favour, and put him at an infinite distance from God. It made way for the deluge of God’s wrath, made us “liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever,” and ruined us so that we have added to all our other sins the great sin of despising God’s great and glorious remedy to meet with the lost and ruined condition of man. This reveals what a fearful thing sin is, but instead of considering it in that light men mock at it. They do this by ridiculing the idea that it is harmful. They indulge in it greedily, as if they could never get of it what would satisfy them. They forget the solemn warnings given concerning it in the Bible, consider as troublesome the preachers who denounce it, and as it is so pleasing to the carnal mind they refuse to believe what is said concerning it, and even where conscience warns of the danger of sin and corroborates all that is said against it, they madly indulge in it, or play with it as with fire until they are overcome by it. This is to make a mock of sin, and it is but fools who would take pleasure in it.
The fool laughs at seriousness. Men and women who have been savingly taught by the Holy Spirit have realised the brevity of time, the uncertainty of life, the endlessness of eternity, the emptiness of a Christless condition and the safety of those who have Christ as their Saviour. The fool will laugh at such things as matters which should only exercise the minds of old men and women, but should never be thought of by young people possessed of health and strength. Bible reading, prayer, preaching, and attending the preaching of the Word, are sneered at as cant and hypocrisy and afford matter for laughter even round the drunkard’s table. The Lord’s people are labeled, and laughed at, as bigots, ante-diluvians and kill-joys, who are enemies of pleasure, and, therefore, not fit to live. It is not merely in such low dens as have been indicated they are thus caricatured, for no better names will be given them in so-called broad-minded religious circles. The fool, when it suits him, will put on a cloak of religion of his own making and looks upon himself as a paragon of what a religious person should be. The Word of God, though it is the only rule given to direct us how we may glorify God and enjoy Him, is treated by him as unreliable and not to be accepted, and all who will not follow the fool in this, are looked down upon as misguided zealots who make themselves the laughing-stock of sensible men. Many are ready to be carried away by this, but let all who are disposed to heed the mocking laugh of the fool remember that there is something of infinitely greater consequence than the silly and irresponsible laugh of a fellow sinner. We have all to give an account at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
The enjoyment of worldly pleasures is a fruitful source of laughter for the fool. To eat, drink and be merry, is the only heaven that he knows, and surely they are fools indeed “whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things” (Phil. iii. 19). To spend an hour in the worship of God is a weariness to the fool but to spend a night in the pleasures of sin is very short. These pleasures crowd serious thoughts out of his mind, God is left out of account, the day of reckoning, if at all thought of, is put far away, and he takes comfort from the fact that he is not alone in the way which he is pursuing for he has many companions. Why should serious thoughts mar his pleasures? Youth is the time of pleasure and he wants to make the most of it, and the further he puts serious thoughts from his mind the freer he is enabled to laugh. To him the chief end of man’s creation is to live in pleasure and to forget God.
These sources from which the fool derives his laughter are but empty bubbles. There is nothing in them that will satisfy a soul, or give the least ground to hope that all will be well when death comes. In the midst of his indulging in vanities a word from an accusing conscience will cause all his pleasures to take wing, and if it will not cause laughter wholly to stop, it will turn it into a poor imitation, behind which there is no pleasure. The louder the laughter of the fool is, the more manifest is the emptiness of his mind. He does not reflect on how short a time he will remain in this world, and his need of preparation for eternity. Death and the Day of Judgment are never seriously considered by him, and in spite of all warnings, he purposes to go on in his own way, ignoring the fact that at God’s right hand “there are pleasures for evermore.”
The laughter of the fool is as “the crackling of thorns under a pot.” A certain writer pithily states this description of the fools laughter as “Blazing high and brightly—soon expiring, and leaving nothing but blackness.” Literally when thorns are burnt in the fire they make plenty of noise, and there is enough noise in the laughter of the fool. One has only to spend a night near a village hall, or somewhere else where the vanities of the world, very often accompanied by strong drink, are indulged in, and one can hear the laughter of the fool for miles around. No consideration, or compassionate thoughts are extended to the sick person who is hovering between life and death, for whom rest and quietness are essential if his life is to be prolonged, or for the bereaved widow whose only child is in his coffin in her house, in close proximity to the scene of these Bacchanalian revelries which cause the laughter of the fool. The whole country-side must hear the noise of these disorders, and, as if that was not enough, it must be given a prominent place in the public press, but the fool in his eagerness to be heard, forgets that his laugh is heard where he has the least desire that it should be heard. The Lord testified that the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and He said, “I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know” (Genesis, xviii. 21). He soon put a speedy end to their laughter.
The laughter of the fool will not last long. “The days of our years are three-score years and ten; and if by reason, of strength they be four-score years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off and we fly away” (Psalm, xc. 10). Although the fool should spend all these years laughing, what is it but a short space of time in contrast to eternity? If his enjoyments were to continue always it would be some reason why he should refuse to listen to the exhortation, “Deal not foolishly” (Psalm, lxxv. 4), but man’s life is brief and the end of the journey is sure, and “where the tree falleth, there it shall be.” In this connection may be quoted the words of John Knox to Queen Mary’s ladies-in-waiting:—”How pleasing were this life of yours, if it should ever abide, and then in the end that we might pass to Heaven with all this gay gear! but fie upon that knave Death, that will come, whether we will or not. . . .”
As a fire of thorns will not last long so it will end in blackness, and thus it is a fit emblem of the laughter of the fool. It is a solemn matter for anyone to die but more so to him who spent his life in folly. The eternity of such is depicted in God’s Word as “outer darkness” where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It is the blackness of darkness where there is no joy, no comfort, no hope, and no expectation of release, world without end. The remembrance of the brief period which their laughter continued in this world will only add to their misery for they see in it that they had their good things already and that they have come to an end, and thus it shall be with them as with the rich man in the parable—”Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented” (Luke, xvi. 25).
This should be a warning to all who are still on mercy’s ground and who are inclined to spend their lives in those things which occasion the laughter of the fool. The royal preacher in Israel, after he had tasted to the full mirth and pleasure, left us, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the following verdict—”I said of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What doeth it” (Eccles. ii. 2). One should remember that apart from Christ there are no real pleasures, but that at His “right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm, xvi. 11). All who will experience these everlasting pleasures must begin to taste of them in this world and turn from the giddy pleasures of sin. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah, lv. 7).—J. C.