Human beings do not properly understand their limitations. Human optimism imagines that it can turn this world into a paradise and easily remove all the obstructions to happiness on earth.
The preacher says to the lost, ‘Stop trying to create happiness for yourself on earth without God. He has ensured you will never succeed. You struggle to find a way round the terms of the gospel, and its conditions of salvation. You think you can find happiness without having to give up all that you love in this world, but you cannot. You want to be allowed to keep the pleasures of sin and still have eternal life, but God demands your total allegiance to him.’