In this text the many fictitious sources from which men seek to derive happiness are compared to a fire kindled, and sparks struck out by way of relieving the darkness of the night. It is of course implied in the metaphor, that true happiness, the real and adequate complement of man's nature, resembles the divinely created and golden sunlight.
I. This comparison does not lead us to deny that pleasure and gratification of a certain kind are derivable from worldly sources. Just as man can relieve himself in great measure from the discomfort and inconvenience of natural darkness, by kindling a fire and surrounding himself with sparks, so can he alleviate, to a certain extent, the instinctive sense of disquietude and dissatisfaction, so irksome to him at intervals of leisure, by the various enjoyments which life has to offer. These are lights which gleam brightly for a moment, but will fade and die down beneath the sobering dawn of eternity.
II. Consider the drawbacks of worldly enjoyments. (1) Unsatisfactoriness adheres in their very nature, inasmuch as they are all (more or less) artificial. They are miserable substitutes, which man has set up to stand him in stead of that true happiness, which is congenial to his nature, and adapted to his wants. (2) The fitful character of the enjoyment derived from worldly sources renders it comparable to a fire and sparks struck out. (3) A fire requires constantly to be fed with fresh fuel, if its brilliancy and warmth are to be maintained. Hence it becomes an apt emblem of the delusive joy of the world, falsely called happiness, which is only kept alive in the worldling's heart by the fuel of excitement. (4) But perhaps the chief drawback of the worldling's so-called happiness is that it is consistent with so much anxiety that it is subject to frequent intrusions from alarm, whenever a glimpse of the future untowardly breaks in upon his mind. It is in the night-time, when the kindled fire glows upon the hearth, and man pursues his employments by the light of torch and taper, that apprehensions visit his mind, and phantom forms are conjured up which scare the ignorant and the superstitious. It is the dim foreboding of evil that cankers effectually the worldling's joy.
E. M. Goulburn, Sermons in the Parish Church of Holywell,p. 429.
References: Isaiah 51:1 C. P. Reichel, Old Testament Outlines,p. 213 (see also Anglican Pulpit of Today,p. 366); Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xviii., No. 1050; E. de Pressensé, Homiletic Magazine,vol. viii., p. 321.Isaiah 51:1; Isaiah 51:2. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. v9. Isaiah 51:2; Isaiah 51:3. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxvii., No. 1596. Isaiah 51:3. Ibid., Evening by Evening,p. 153.Isaiah 51:5. Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 244.