Proverbs 27:7

The full soul loatheth an honeycomb,.... Or "tramples upon" it (a), as the word signifies, and most versions render it, expressive of contempt and abhorrence; and suits will the situation of the honeycomb, which was usually in trees and rocks in Palestine: and so might drop from thence, and be trampled upon by passengers; and especially such as are here described, whose appetites have been sated with dainties, and their stomachs heave at the most delicious food.

IT is a great blessing when food and appetite meet together. Some have appetite and no meat, they need our pity. Others have meat but no appetite. They may not, perhaps, win our pity but they certainly require it. We have heard of a gentleman who was accustomed to take an early morning walk and frequently met a poor man hastening to his labor. One morning he said to him, "I have to walk this early each morning to get a stomach for my meat." "Ah," said the other, "and I have to trudge to work this early to get meat for my stomach." Neither of them was quite satisfied with his position—only the happy conjunction of the appetite and the food could secure content. Are we thankful enough when we have both? It has often happened that men have been so luxuriously fed that appetite has departed from them altogether. The Israelites, when they were in the wilderness, became so squeamish that though they were fed with the bread from Heaven and, for once, men did eat angels' food, yet they said, "Our soul loathes this light bread." And you in the world are in great danger of falling into the same condition, for you do not enjoy the rarest luxuries! You pick and choose as if nothing were good enough for you and, like the old Roman gluttons, you require sea and land, earth and air to be ransacked for your gratification and then crave pungent sauces and strange flavorings before you can eat. The fact is, the old proverb is true, that the best sauce for meat is hunger, and while the confectioner and the cook may labor with a thousand arts to produce a dainty dish, Nature teaches us the way to enjoy our meat, namely, not to eat it till we need it—and then to partake of only so much as our bodies require. That hunger gives a relish even to objectionable diet is certain. Our forefathers found it possible to live upon food which we could not touch.

IT is a great blessing when food and appetite meet together. Some have appetite and no meat, they need our pity. Others have meat but no appetite. They may not, perhaps, win our pity but they certainly require it. We have heard of a gentleman who was accustomed to take an early morning walk and frequently met a poor man hastening to his labor. One morning he said to him, "I have to walk this early each morning to get a stomach for my meat."

The special instance covers the general law, that indulgence in pleasure of any kind brings on satiety and weariness, but self-restraint multiplies the sources of enjoyment.