“[And] the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat...We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick...”
(Num. 11:5)
I find sentimentality usually arises from a nostalgic spirit in me. Many times, in my own case, being sentimental implies my emotion is involved a little too much. Don’t misunderstand: sentimentality is a legitimate emotion and is fine, in its place — if guided aright; that is, kept under tight scrutiny.
In the text quoted above God’s people seemed to have been led more by emotion than reason. Our lives are not to be governed by, nor rely on, emotion; not by sentimental feelings, but by scriptural facts. Israel sentimentally remembered the good times but refused to learn from the bad.
Melancholy David was a dyed-in-the-wool sentimentalist, but not to the extent that he left good reasoning behind him. The order is fact, faith, feeling. My pastor illustrates these three walking on a fence rail; whenever one or both of the first two look back at the third, they fall off the fence.
An Old Disciple
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