Vain regrets.
"And the king was sorry." But no good came of his sorrow. It was too late. He had lost his opportunity. He had put his foot upon a slide, and down he had to go. Plumptre says, "It was the last struggle of conscience. In that moment there must have come before his mind his past reverence for the prophet, the joy which had for a time accompanied the strivings of a better life, possibly the counsels of his foster brother Manaen." Every man must have his regrets. Things done in all good faith turn out very different to our expectations, and we regret that we did them. But, if we are strong men, we work at the correction or the remedying of our unintended evil. And regret sometimes is an important element in repentance. Regret concerns the result of action. Repentance concerns the wrong of action.
I. REGRETS ARE VAIN WHEN CHARACTER IS WEAK. Undisciplined people are always full of regrets; but they do them little or no good. Herod was sorry that he had made that unconditional promise. But he was too weak to refuse to do the wrong to which it led. The weak fear of man extracted the order for the beheading; he was ashamed before that assembly to recall his too hasty promise. "Like most weak men, Herod feared to be thought weak. It was not so much his regard for the oath which he had taken, but his shrinking from the taunt, or whispered jest, or contemptuous gesture of the assembled guests, if they should see him draw back from his plighted word." When the character is weak it is
Herod may be as sorry as he pleases, but his regret is helpless and vain. Public opinion will drag him on into crime, and so will the shameless companion of his sins.
II. REGRETS ARE VAIN WHEN CIRCUMSTANCES ARE MASTERFUL. A man may be sorry, and may even try to put right his wrong, yet find all his efforts in vain. The man who plays with the fates will be dragged on to his doom by them. It is easy to set going a train of circumstances, but even the strong man vainly tries to check their unfoldings; they become masterful; and he must see the misery he has made, and be punished by seeing it. Our life is so ordered that good, sooner or later, inevitably unfolds good; and evil, sooner or later, inevitably unfolds misery. Let a man do the prudent, the thoughtful, the self-restrained, the good, and he will never know the misery of vain regrets.—R.T.