A Perilous Obsession
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently him that is before thee You see a man who owns a private yacht go on an extended cruise among the Thousand Islands and along the balmy shores of South America or Southern France, and his kind of life becomes your ideal and dream. You idealize the man who lives in a mansion in the suburbs of the city set back on a ten-acre lot, and has a chauffeur in uniform to drive him in a luxurious limousine to the office at ten o'clock in the morning. You would like to be in his position. You do not stop to ask what sort of man he is, how he gained his position, how he acquired his wealth. That is what our proverb is about. It is intended to put you on guard against the lure of power and wealth. If you are the guest of a ruler or a rich man, consider him that is before you, Solomon says, and adds: "Put a knife to your throat (that is, be on your guard), if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. Labor not to be rich. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven" (v. 2fl.). Many a man has been robbed of the finest things of his manhood, those of truth, justice and honor, because he has been swayed by the hospitality of men of influence whose lives were impure and who gained their high place and abundance by wrong methods. If you would maintain the purity and honor of your soul, keep an eye upon all who put before you their material wealth and tempting dainties, lest by their example they rob you of your moral excellences and spiritual attainments. Our generation is sadly vulgarized by the passion for things, for luxuries, for pomp and show. "Things are in the saddle and ride mankind," someone has said of our age. We condemn no man because he is rich. We do not judge a man to be selfish or dishonest because he lives in a mansion or owns a yacht. The trouble is, the manner of life these things typify has become the obsession of our ageÑan obsession that has led multitudes of people into all kinds of dishonesties and crooked dealings, many into gross crimes. Let the wise man's proverb be a warning to our generation against this perilous obsession.
