WHAT a strange world is this in which we live! The Prince of Light, and the Prince of Darkness - good men and bad men - holiness and sin - are all made objects of sport and ridicule. However, it is dangerous folly to jest with serious things; and Solomon teaches, that they are "fools" who "make a mock at sin." Prov.xiv,9. Here we see children doing mischief and then laughing at it, in which, alas! they are often encouraged by ungodly parents; there the drunkard boasts of his excesses, the debauchee of the number of his victims, and the gamester of the fruits of his art and deceit. Thus many, at every period of life, glory in their shame!

Wicked men triumph when they see blemishes in the character of the righteous. What manner of persons ought Christians then to be in all holy conversation and godliness, that they may cut off the pleas of gainsayers, and put to silence the ignorance of foolish men!

Friendly reader, art thou tempted to countenance by a laugh or a smile, or in any other way, what thou canst not inwardly approve? We entreat thee to weigh well the following considerations:

1. He who laughs at sin, laughs while God frowns. "God is angry with the wicked every day." Ps.vii,11. What is it that excites his anger? What is that by which his spirit is vexed and grieved? What is that which occasions the sword of vengeance to hang over the heads of sinners? "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." Rom.i,18. And if the wrath of a king be as the roaring of a lion, how dreadful must be the wrath of the Almighty God!

2. He who makes light of sin, makes light of the miseries of all mankind. We live in a vale of tears, in which prisons and hospitals, and innumerable other receptacles of wo, impress the solemn truth, that the misery of man is great upon him. Eccl.viii,6.


Ah! little think the gay, licentious, proud,
Whom pleasure, power, and affluence surround:
They, who their thoughtless hours in giddy mirth,
And wanton, often cruel riot, waste:
Ah! little think they while they dance along,
How many feel this very moment death,
And all the sad variety of pain!


3. To sport with sin, is to sport with death. For sin entered the world, and death followed sin. Rom.v,12. And death has made this world like Golgotha, a place of skulls - not a fit place then for profane merriment. If all the bones of all the dead were collected into one vast pile, and Jehu should ask, "Who slew all these?" [2Kings x,8,] the answer must be, "Sin slew them all."

4. For a man to laugh at sin, is to laugh when he ought to mourn. Will any one make sport with his own disease? Sin is a disease. It is poisonous - it is fatal too, unless the Balm of Gilead, (the blood of Christ) be applied in time. Sin produces guilt and shame. When a man laughs at his sin, he laughs at the fraud by which he has cheated himself. His conduct is not less absurd than wicked. 'Tis the folly of a fool laughing at his own folly. . . . . .

5. To sport with sin, is to sport with the sorrows of Jesus. And this, considering the dignity of the person of Christ, is the most solemn and awful consideration that can be suggested. It were less guilty to sport with fellow creatures than with the Son of God. Never did any person suffer so much from contempt as Jesus did. He was blindfolded and buffeted, and in the grossest manner insulted by the rabble in the high priest's hall. "Then did they spit in his face." Matt.xxvi,67. Herod and his men of war set Jesus at nought. In mockery he was invested with a purple robe. A reed was put into his hand for a scepter, to ridicule his pretensions to a kingdom, and when he was lifted up on the cross, (O horrid to relate!) they mocked the pangs in which he died. Passing strangers wagged their heads, and said, "If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." The chief priests, scribes, and elders, said, with bitter sarcasm, "He saved others - himself he cannot save." And even the thieves who were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.

And can you, O wanton sinner! join your voice to theirs to insult him? Can you trifle with Jesus and make light of his prayers, his tears, his groans, and bloody sweat in the garden of agony, the severity of the scourge, and the torture of the crown of thorns? O be persuaded to trace his footsteps to Calvary. There stand and gaze; pause and ponder. If at such a place, with such a scene, you can trifle, what would angels think! "More struck with grief or wonder, who can tell?"

Now, therefore, be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. Isa.xviii,22. If God give you repentance unto life, you will mourn for Christ as one mourneth for an only son, and be in bitterness, as one that is in bitterness for the loss of his first born.

Let our readers, young ones especially, be persuaded to commit to memory the following lines, which express in an agreeable manner, the substance of the preceding remarks, and which, by the blessing of God, will well repay the trouble it may cost them:


Who laughs at sin, laughs at his Maker's frowns,
Laughs at the sword of vengeance o'er his head:
Laughs at the great Redeemer's tears and wounds,
Who but for sin had never wept or bled.

Who laughs at sin, laughs at the numerous woes
Which have this guilty world so oft befell:
Laughs at the whole creation's groans and throes,
At all the spoils of death, and pains of hell.

Who laughs at sin, laughs at his own disease,
Welcomes approaching torments with his smiles,
Dares at his soul's expense his fancy please,
Affronts his God - himself of bliss beguiles.

Who laughs at sin, sports with his guilt and shame,
Laughs at the errors of his senseless mind:
For so absurd a fool there wants a name,
Expressive of a folly so refined.

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nice piece. The gospel truth.

Isaiah 33:15:16

"He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure."

1 Corin 2:14
"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."