And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
The haughtiness and abomination were pride, fullness of bread and overeating, abundance of idleness without useful physical labor, and neglect of and failure to strengthen and help the poor and needy. Profusion produced luxury and pride, while riches joined with leisure hardened hearts that were never oppressed by want or burdened by sorrow. The wealth and leisure most desired by men fostered love of pleasure and sensual indulgence, and gave birth to the sins that destroyed the cities of the plain.
At the foundation lay gratification of unnatural appetite, and indulgence of appetite and passion lay at the foundation of its sins. That indulgence dulled minds, enslaved people to appetite, and left them unable to distinguish sacred claims from the demands of appetite. Their useless, idle life made them a prey to temptation, defaced the divine image in them and made them satanic rather than divine. Idleness is the greatest curse that can fall upon man, because vice and crime follow in its train, enfeebling the mind, perverting the understanding and debasing the soul. The adversary lies in ambush to insinuate himself under attractive disguise, ready to destroy the unguarded whose leisure gives him opportunity, and he succeeds most and is never more successful than when he comes to men in their idle hours.
Delicate idleness and overeating sow seeds of disease and bring swift and sure decay. They leave youth with little strength of bone, brain and muscle for doing so little useful labor, because of lack of physical, useful labor. While overwork does injure the growing frames of the young, inactivity, an inactive life and idle ease bring a thousand to the grave where pure overwork breaks down a hundred and causes the death of but a few. Because of this conduct God by His own judgment took Sodom away and removed its inhabitants in destruction as He saw good and fit and judged right.
The same haughtiness includes idolatry of dress and fashionable display and worldly display such as paniers, bustles, unnecessary plaiting and fashionable arrangement of dress upon the body, which opposes God's way. To take the way of the Sodomites is to make a stylish appearance with such deforming fashions. Ministers, ministers' wives and parents must discard everything of that character, and clothe themselves and their children in simplicity and modesty of apparel approved by God. They must take far greater pains to give them beautiful characters and keep the way of the Lord than to please the world and have them please the world, with parents teaching their children simplicity, modesty and godly character.
The haughtiness and abomination were pride, fullness of bread and overeating, abundance of idleness without useful physical labor, and neglect of and failure to strengthen and help the poor and needy. Profusion produced luxury and pride, while riches joined with leisure hardened hearts that were never oppressed by want or burdened by sorrow. The wealth and leisure most desired by men fostered love of pleasure and sensual indulgence, and gave birth to the sins that destroyed the cities of the plain.
At the foundation lay gratification of unnatural appetite, and indulgence of appetite and passion lay at the foundation of its sins. That indulgence dulled minds, enslaved people to appetite, and left them unable to distinguish sacred claims from the demands of appetite. Their useless, idle life made them a prey to temptation, defaced the divine image in them and made them satanic rather than divine. Idleness is the greatest curse that can fall upon man, because vice and crime follow in its train, enfeebling the mind, perverting the understanding and debasing the soul. The adversary lies in ambush to insinuate himself under attractive disguise, ready to destroy the unguarded whose leisure gives him opportunity, and he succeeds most and is never more successful than when he comes to men in their idle hours.
Delicate idleness and overeating sow seeds of disease and bring swift and sure decay. They leave youth with little strength of bone, brain and muscle for doing so little useful labor, because of lack of physical, useful labor. While overwork does injure the growing frames of the young, inactivity, an inactive life and idle ease bring a thousand to the grave where pure overwork breaks down a hundred and causes the death of but a few. Because of this conduct God by His own judgment took Sodom away and removed its inhabitants in destruction as He saw good and fit and judged right.
The same haughtiness includes idolatry of dress and fashionable display and worldly display such as paniers, bustles, unnecessary plaiting and fashionable arrangement of dress upon the body, which opposes God's way. To take the way of the Sodomites is to make a stylish appearance with such deforming fashions. Ministers, ministers' wives and parents must discard everything of that character, and clothe themselves and their children in simplicity and modesty of apparel approved by God. They must take far greater pains to give them beautiful characters and keep the way of the Lord than to please the world and have them please the world, with parents teaching their children simplicity, modesty and godly character.