Wisdom is better than weapons of war. Such is the moral which Koheleth desires to draw from the little narrative given above (see Ecclesiastes 9:14-16; and Ecclesiastes 7:19). Wisdom can do what no material force can effect, and often produces results which all the implements of war could not command. But one sinner destroyeth much good. The happy consequences which the wise man's counsel might accomplish, or has already accomplished, may be overthrown or rendered useless by the villany or perversity of a bad man. The Vulgate, reading differently, has, Qui in uno peccaverit, multa bona perdet. But this seems to be out of keeping with the context. Adam's sin infected the whole race of man; Achau's transgression caused Israel's defeat (Joshua 7:11, Joshua 7:12); Rehoboam's folly occasioned the great schism (1 Kings 12:16). The wide° reaching effects of one little error are illustrated by the proverbial saying which every one knows, and which runs in Latin thus: "Clavus unus perdit equi soleam, soles equum, equus equitem, eques castra, castro rempublicam."
HOMILETICS
All things alike to all.
I. ALL MEN EQUALLY IN THE HANDS OF GOD.
1. Their persons. The righteous and the wise (Esther 9:1), but not less certainly the unrighteous and the foolish. God's breath sustains all; God's providence watches over all; God's power encircles all; God's mercy encompasses all.
2. Their works. Their actions, whether good or bad, in the sense explained in the last homily, "are conditioned by God, the Governor of the world and the Former of history" (Delitzsch).
3. Their experiences. "All lies before them;" i.e. all possible experiences lie before men; which shall happen to them being reserved by God in his own power.
II. ALL MEN EQUALLY IGNORANT OF THE FUTURE. "No man knoweth either love or hatred," or "whether it be love or hatred, no man knoweth;" which may signify either that no man can tell whether "providences of a happy nature proceeding from the love of God, or of an unhappy nature proceeding from the hatred of God," are to befall him (J.W). Michaelis, Knobel, Hengstenberg, Plumptre); or that no man can predict whether he will love or hate (Hitzig, Ewald, Delitzsch). In either case the meaning is that no man can certainly predict what a day may bring forth. In so far as the future is in God's hand, man can only learn what it contains by waiting the evolution of events; in so far as it is molded by man's free determinations, no man can predict what these will be until the moment arrives for their formation.
III. ALL MEN EQUALLY SUBJECT TO DEATH. "All things come alike to all: there is one event" (Esther 9:2).
1. To the righteous and to the wicked; i.e. to the inwardly and morally good and to the inwardly and morally evil.
2. To the clean and to the unclean; i.e. to the ceremonially pure and to the ceremonially defiled.
3. To him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not; i.e. to him who observes the outward forms of religion and to him who observes them not.
4. To him that sweareth and to him that feareth an oath; i.e. to the openly sinful and to the outwardly reverent and devout. "All alike go to the dead" (Esther 9:3).
IV. ALL MEN EQUALLY DEFILED BY SIN. "The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live" (Esther 9:3). From which may be learnt:
1. That sin is a kind of madness. This will not be doubted by those who consider that sin is the rebellion of a creature against the Creator, and that sinners generally hope both to escape punishment on account of their sin, and to attain felicity through their sin.
2. That the seat of this madness is in the soul. It may affect the whole personality of the man, but the perennial fountain whence it springs is the heart, in its alienation from God. "The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Romans 8:7).
3. That the heart is not merely tainted with this madness, but is fall of it. In other words, it is, in its natural condition, wholly under the power of sin. The total corruption of human nature, besides being taught in Scripture (Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21; Job 15:14; Psalms 14:2, Psalms 14:3; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Isaiah 53:6; Matthew 15:19; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:1-3), is abundantly confirmed by experience.
4. That, apart from Divine grace, this madness continues unchanged throughout life. There is nothing in human nature itself or in its surroundings that has power to subdue and far less to eradicate this madness. A new birth alone can rescue the soul from its dominion (John 3:3).
V. ALL MEN EQUALLY THE SUBJECTS OF HOPE.
1. Hope a universal possession. "To him that is joined to all the living there is hope" (Esther 9:4); i.e. while man lives he hopes. Dum spirat, sperat (Latin proverb). "Hope springs eternal in the human breast" (Pope). Even the most abject are never, or only seldom, abandoned by this passion. On the contrary, "the miserable hath no other medicine, but only hope" (Shakespeare). When hope expires, life dies.
2. Hope a potent inspiration. In ordinary life "we are kept alive by hope" (Romans 8:24). The pleasing expectation of future good enables the heart to endure present ills, and nerves the resolution to attempt further efforts. Though sometimes, when ill-grounded, "kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings" (Shakespeare), yet when soundly based it
"Like a cordial, innocent though strong,
Man's heart at once inspirits and serenes."
(Young.)
Especially is this the case with that good hope through grace (2 Thessalonians 2:16) which pertains to the Christian (Romans 5:5; 2 Corinthians 3:12; Philippians 1:20; 1 Peter 1:13).
VI. ALL MEN EQUALLY POSSESSED OF INTELLIGENCE. Not of equal intelligence, but equally intelligent. In particular:
1. All know themselves to be mortal. "The living know that they shall die" (Esther 9:5). They may frequently ignore this fact, and deliberately shut their eyes upon it, but of the fact itself they are not ignorant.
2. In this knowledge they are superior to the dead, who "know not anything, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten;" who in fact, having dropped out of life, have for ever ceased to take an interest in anything that is done under the sun.
Learn:
1. The essential equality of all men.
2. The inherent dignity of life.
3. The value of the present.
A living dog better than a dead lion.
I. ANIMATED BEING BETTER THAN INANIMATE. Life a higher product than matter; and a lion without life is only matter. Life added to matter in its meanest forms imparts to it a dignity, worth, and use not possessed by matter in its most magnificent shapes where life is absent. The higher life, the nobler being.
II. COMPLETED BEING BETTER THAN INCOMPLETE. A living dog is a complete organism; a dead lion an organism defective. The living dog possesses all that is necessary to realize the idea of "dog;" the dead lion wants the more important element, life, and retains only the less important, matter. In the living dog are seen the "spirit" and "form" combined; in the dead lion only the "form" without the "spirit." If presently man is complete naturally, he is incomplete spiritually. Hereafter redeemed and renewed, man will be "perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
III. ACTIVE BEING BETTER THAN INACTIVE. The living dog, if not a person, is yet more than a thing. Along with life and an organism, it has powers and functions it can exercise; senses through which it can perceive, a measure of intelligence through which it can understand, at least rudimentary affections it can both feel and express, instincts and impulses by and under which it can act. On the other hand, the dead lion has none of these, however once it may have owned them all. It is now passive, still, inert, powerless—an emblem of the soul dead in sin, as a living dog is of the same soul energized by religion.
IV. SERVICEABLE BEING BETTER THAN UNSERVICEABLE. A living dog of some use, a dead lion of none. The gigantic powers of the forest king are by death reduced to a nullity, and can effect nothing; the feeble capacities of the yelping cur, just because it is alive, can be turned to profitable account. So magnificent powers of body and intellect without spiritual life are comparatively valueless, while smaller abilities, if inspired by grace, may accomplish important designs.
LESSONS.
1. Be thankful for life.
2. Seek that moral and spiritual completeness which is the highest glory of life.
3. Endeavor to turn the powers of life to the best account.
4. Serve him from whom life comes.
The picture of an ideal life.
I. A LIFE OF PERENNIAL JOY. The joy should be fourfold.
1. Material enjoyment. "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart" (Esther 9:7). The permission herein granted to make a pleasurable use of the good things of this world, of its meats and its drinks, has not been revoked by Christianity. Not only did the Son of man by his example (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34; John 2:1-11) show that religion did not require men to be ascetics or monks, Rechabites or Nazarites, but the apostolic writers have made it clear that Christianity is not meats or drinks (Romans 14:17; 1 Timothy 4:3; Hebrews 9:10), and that while no one has a right to over-indulge himself in either, thereby becoming gluttonous and a wine-bibber, on the other hand no one is warranted in the name of Christianity to impose on believers such ordinances as—"Touch not, taste not, handle not" (Colossians 2:21).
2. Domestic happiness. "Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity" (Esther 9:9). Marriage is not only honorable and innocent (Hebrews 13:4) as being a Divine institution (Matthew 19:4-6), but is one of the purest sources of felicity open to man on earth, provided it be contracted in the fear of God, and cemented with mutual love. As woman was made for man (1 Corinthians 11:9), to be his helpmeet (Genesis 2:20), i.e. his counterpart and complement, companion and counsellor, equal and friend; so he that findeth a with findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord (Proverbs 18:22)—findeth one in whose love he may indulge himself, in whose sympathy he may refresh himself, in whose grace he may sun himself without fear of sin. The notion that a higher phase of the religious life is attained by celibates than by married persons is against both reason and revelation, and is contradicted by the fruits which in practical experience it usually bears. 1'either the Preacher nor the great Teacher grants permission to men to live joyfully with unmarried females or with other people's wives, but only with their own partners; and neither Old Testament nor New favors the idea that men should take as wives any women but those they love, or should treat otherwise than with affection those they marry (Ephesians 5:28).
3. Religious felicity. Arising from two things.
II. A LIFE OF UNWEARIED ACTIVITY. The work of a good man ought to be:
1. Deliberately chosen. Voluntarily undertaken, not reluctantly endured; the work of one whose hands have been stretched out in search of occupation. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do."
2. Widely extended. A good man's labors should not be too restricted either as to number, character, or sphere. "This one thing I do" (Philippians 3:13) does not signify that never more than one business at a time should engage a good man's attention. The ideal good man should put his hand to every sort of good work that Providence may place in his way (Galatians 6:9, Galatians 6:10)—at least so far as time and ability allow.
3. Energetically performed. Whatsoever the hands of a good man find to do, he should do with his might. Earnestness an indispensable condition of acceptable service. Fitful and intermittent, half-hearted and indifferent, labor especially in good work, to be condemned (1 Corinthians 15:58).
4. Religiously inspired. A good man should have sufficient reasons for his constant activity. The argument to which the Preacher alludes, though not the highest, but the lowest, is nevertheless powerful, viz. that this life is the only working season a man has. "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest" (Esther 9:10). The inhabitants of the under-world are forever done with the activities of earth. The good man no more than the wicked can pursue his schemes when he has vanished from this mundane scene. Hence the urgency of working while it is called today (John 9:4). Though the Christian has loftier and clearer conceptions of the after-life of the good than Old Testament saints had, the Preacher's argument is not possessed of less, but rather of more, force as an incitement to Christian work, seeing that the "now" of the present life is the only accepted time, and the only day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Learn:
1. The twofold aspect of every true life—as one of receiving and giving, of enjoying and working.
2. The essential connection between these two departments of life—the joy being a necessary condition as well as natural result of all true work, and the work being a necessary expression and invaluable sustainer of the joy.
3. The true way of redeeming life—to consecrate its days and years to serving the Lord with gladness, or to rejoicing in God and doing his will.
Words to a worker.
I. THE WORKER DESCRIBED: MAN.
1. Furnished with capacities for work. With bodily organs and mental endowments, with speech and reason.
2. Located in a sphere of work. The world a vast workshop, in which every creature is busily employed—not only the irrational animals, but even things without life.
3. Appointed to the destiny of work. As while sinless in Eden man was set to dress the garden and to keep it, and after the Fall beyond its precincts he was commanded to till the ground and to earn his bread through the sweat of his brow, so is he still charged to be a worker, a Christian apostle even saying that "if a man will not work neither shall he eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
4. Impelled by a desire of work. Under the compulsion of his own nature and of the constitution of the world, man is constrained to go forth in search of work, of labor for his hands, of exercise for his mind, and generally of employment for his manhood.
II. THE WORKER COUNSELED.
1. To do the duty that lies nearest. This the obvious import of the words, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it." To men in earnest about finding their life-work, the duties that lie nearest will commonly be the most urgent; and vice versa, the duties that are most urgent will usually be found to lie nearest. Among these will stand out conspicuously
2. To do every duty with energy. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Halt: hearted labor, besides wasting time, spoils the work and demoralizes the worker. It is due to God, whose servant man is, to the importance of the work in which he is engaged, and to himself as one whose highest interests are involved in all he does, that man should labor with enthusiasm, diligence, and might.
3. To do each duty from an impulse of individual responsibility. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, that do thou!" As no man can tell what his neighbor's duty is in every instance, so can no man in any case devolve his duty on another. "To every man his work!" is God's great labor law. If other workers are unfaithful, be not thou unfaithful.
4. To do all duties under a sense of the value of time. Remembering that this life is man's only opportunity of working, that it is swiftly passing, that death is near, and that there is neither wisdom, knowledge, nor device in the grave whither man goes.
Time and chance for all.
I. AN UNDENIABLE PROPOSITION—that the issues of life are incalculable. This truth set forth in five illustrations.
1. The race not to the swift. Sometimes, perhaps often, it is, yet not always or necessarily, so that men can calculate the issue of any contest. Just as swiftness of foot is no guarantee that a runner shall be first at the goal, so in other undertakings the possession of superior ability is no proof that one shall attain pre-eminence above his fellows.
2. The battle not to the strong. By many experiences Israel had been taught that "the battle is the Lord's (1 Samuel 17:47), and that there is "no king saved by the multitude of a host" (Psalms 33:16). Neither Pharaoh (Exodus 14:27), nor Zerab the Ethiopian (2 Chronicles 14:12), nor the Moabites and Ammonites who came against Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:27), nor Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35), were the better for their innumerable armies; and though Napoleon was wont to say that God was always on the side of the strongest battalions, instances can be cited in sufficient numbers to show that it is God who giveth the victory to kings (Psalms 144:10), and that he does not always espouse the side of those who can summon the most warriors into the field.
3. Bread not to the wise. Here again the sense is that while capacity and diligence are usually rewarded, yet the exceptions to the rule are so numerous as to prove that it cannot certainly be predicted that a man of sagacity will always be able to secure for himself the means of subsistence.
4. Riches not to men of understanding. At least not always. Men of talent, and even of industry, sometimes fail in amassing riches, and when they do succeed, cannot always keep the riches they have amassed Nothing commoner than to find poor wise men (Esther 9:15) and rich fools (Luke 12:20) Though as a rule the hand of the diligent maketh rich (Proverbs 10:4), men of splendid abilities often spend their strength for naught. Riches are no sign of wisdom.
5. Favor not to men of skill. Even genius cannot always command the approbation and appreciation it deserves. The world's inventors and discoverers have seldom been rewarded according to their merits. The world has for the most part coolly accepted the productions of their genius, and remanded themselves to oblivion. The fate of the poor wise man after mentioned (Esther 9:15) has often been experienced.
II. As INCONTROVERTIBLE ARGUMENT—that death, though certain as to fact, is uncertain as to incidence.
1. The momentous truth stated. "Man knoweth not his time," i.e. of his death, which ever fails upon him suddenly, as a thief in the night. Even when death's approach is anticipated, there is no reason to suppose its actual occurrence is not always unexpected.
2. The simple illustration given. "As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time," viz. that of death, "when it falleth suddenly upon them."
3. The easy argument applied. This being so, it is obvious that no one can surely reckon upon the issues that seem naturally to belong to his several qualities or abilities, to his swiftness, or strength, or wisdom, or understanding, or skill. Death may at any moment interpose—as, for instance, before the race is finished and the goal reached, before the battle is concluded, before the wise plan has been matured or carried out; and then, of course, man's expectations are defeated.
LESSONS.
1. Diligence: let every man do his best.
2. Humility: beware of overconfidence.
3. Prudence: neglect not the possibility of failure.
4. Submission: accept with meekness the allotments of Providence.
The parable of the little city.
I. THE PARABLE.
1. The picture delineated. A little city threatened by a powerful assailant, deserted through fear by the main body of its inhabitants, and occupied by a small garrison of men capable of bearing arms, among them a poor wise man. Advancing against it a mighty monarch, who besieges and storms it with armies and engines, but is ultimately compelled to raise the siege by the skill of the aforesaid wise poor man.
2. The historical foundation. Probably
3. Some suggestive parallels. Incidents resembling that to which the Preacher here alludes may have happened often; as e.g. the deliverance of Athens by the counsel of Themistocles (Smith's 'History of Greece,' 19. § 5; Thucydides, 1.74), and of Syracuse by the skill of Archimedes, who for a time at least delayed the capture of the city by the wonderful machines with which he opposed the enemy's attacks (Livy, 24.34), according to some doubtful accounts, setting fire to their ships by means of mirrors.
4. Spiritual applications.
II. THE LESSONS OF THE PARABLE.
1. That wisdom and poverty are frequently allied. Not always, Solomon being witness (1 Kings 3:12, 1 Kings 3:13); but mostly, God seldom bestowing all his gifts upon one individual, but distributing them according to his good pleasure to one wealth and to another wisdom, dividing to each severally as he will (1 Corinthians 12:11). Nor is it difficult to discern in this marks of special wisdom and goodness.
2. That wisdom is superior to force. "Wisdom is better than strength," and" wisdom is better than weapons of war."
3. That wisdom mostly speaks into unwilling ears. "Nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised." Partly because of the world's want of appreciation of the intrinsic excellence of wisdom, the world usually possessing a keener relish and finer instinct for folly; and partly, perhaps chiefly, because of the wise man's poverty. At all events, it has usually been the world's way to treat its wise men with disdain. The picture of wisdom crying aloud in the street into unheeding ears (Proverbs 1:20-25) has often been reproduced, as e.g. in the persons of Jehovah's prophets (Le 26:43; 2 Chronicles 36:16; Isaiah 53:1; Matthew 21:34-36) and of Christ (John 5:40). To this day the world's treatment of Christ is not dissimilar, his words of wisdom being by men for the most part despised, and in particular the special wisdom he displayed in effecting their deliverance from sin and Satan by himself submitting to shame and death, and extending to them the offer of a full and free forgiveness, being frequently regarded with scorn and contempt.
4. That wisdom is more influential than folly. "The words of the wise," spoken "in quiet, are more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools," or that is the ringleader among fools, their very prince and chief. This assertion may seem to conflict with that of the preceding verse, but in reality it does not. The noisy demagogue who by sheer vociferation stirs the unthinking populace may appear to be more influential than the quietly speaking man of wisdom, but in the long run it is the latter that prevails. After all, it is ideas that move the world, in science, in philosophy, in religion, and these have their birth in meditative souls rather than in fiery spirits, and diffuse themselves, not amid the tempests of passion, but through the medium of calm and earnest speech. Remarkably was this exemplified in Christ—read in connection Colossians 2:3; John 7:37; Isaiah 42:3; and to this day the most powerful force operating in and on society is not that of eloquence, or of intellect, or of learning, all confessedly influential, but of goodness, which works silently and often out of sight like leaven.
5. That wisdom is commonly repaid with ingratitude. "No man remembered that same poor man." The Preacher says it with a touch of sadness, as if after all it was a strange and almost a new thing beneath the sun—which it is not. Whether the wise woman who saved the city Abel was remembered by her citizens is not recorded; but history reports that Themistocles, who delivered Athens from the Persians, was afterwards ostracized by his countrymen. Alas! ingratitude has never been an uncommon sin among men. Pharaoh's butler has had many a successor (Genesis 40:1-23:28). The world has never been guilty of overlauding its benefactors or overloading them with gratitude. Rather the poet accurately likens Time to a sturdy beggar with a wallet on his back-
"Wherein he doth put alms for oblivion,
A great-sized monster of ingratitudes."
And goes on to add—
"Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devoured
As fast as they are made, forgot as soon As done," etc.
('Troilus and Cressida,' act 3. sc. 3.)
Nor is it merely the world of which such ingratitude can be predicted, but the Church also has been too often guilty of forgetting him to whom she owes her deliverance. How many of his words, for instance, are not heard by those who profess to have been redeemed and saved by him—words of counsel for the path of duty, words of comfort for the day of trial, words of caution for the hour of danger! And yet the remembrance of these would be the highest tribute of gratitude they could offer their Divine Redeemer.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
The antidote to despondency.
It was said by a famous man of the world, "Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel." The epigram is more sparkling than true; reflecting men in every age have been oppressed by the solemnity of life's facts, and the insolubility of life's problems. Some men are roused to inquiry and are beset by perplexities when trouble and adversity befall themselves; and others experience doubts and distress at the contemplation of the broad and obvious facts of human life as it unfolds before their observation. Few men who both think and feel have escaped the probation of doubt; most have striven, and many have striven in vain, to vindicate eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to men.
I. THE FACT THAT IN THIS EARTHLY STATE THERE IS AN ABSENCE OF COMPLETE RETRIBUTION. "All things come alike to all;" "There is one event unto all." The righteous, the good, and the wise do not seem to meet with more prosperity and greater happiness than the wicked and the foolish. The man who offers due religious observance, and who reveres his oath, is subject to misfortune and calamity equally with the negligent, the impious, the false swearer. No thunderbolt of vengeance smites the sinner, no miraculous protection is round about the upright and obedient. Nay, the righteous is sometimes cut off in the prime of his manhood; the sinner's days are sometimes lengthened, and he dies in a delusive peace.
II. THE DIFFICULTY, DOUBT, AND PERPLEXITY OCCASIONED BY THE OBSERVATION OF THIS FACT. The writer of Ecclesiastes laid to heart and explored the mysteries of Providence; and in this he was not peculiar. Every observant and thoughtful person is sometimes compelled to ask himself whether or not there is a meaning in the events of life, and, if there be a meaning, what it is. Can our reason reconcile these events, as a whole, with belief in the existence, in the government, of a God at once almighty and benevolent? Are there considerations which can pacify the perturbed breast? Beneath the laws of nature is there a Divine heart? or is man alone sensitive to the inequalities of human fate, to the moral contradictions which seem to thrust themselves upon the attention?
III. THE TRUE SOLUTION OF THESE DOUBTS TO BE FOUND IN THE CONVICTION THAT ALL ARE IN THE HAND OF GOD. It is to be observed that faith in God can do what the human understanding cannot effect. Men and their affairs are not in the hand of chance or in the hand of fate, but in the hand of God. And by God is meant not merely the supreme Power of the universe, but the personal Power which is characterized by the attributes Holy Scripture assigns to the Eternal. Wisdom, righteousness, and benevolence belong to God. And by benevolence we are not to understand an intention to secure the enjoyment of men, to ward off from them every pain, all weakness, want, and woe. The purpose of the Divine mind is far higher than this—even the promotion of men's spiritual well-being, the discipline of human character, and especially the perfecting of obedience and submission. Sorrow and disappointment may be, and in the case of the pious will be, the means of bringing men into harmony with the will and character of God himself.—T.
Life and death.
No thoughtful reader can take these remarks upon the living and the dead as complete and satisfactory in themselves. The writer of this book, as we know from other passages, never intended them so to be taken. They are singularly partial; yet when they are seen to be so, they are also singularly just. Just one aspect of life and of mortality is here presented, and it is an aspect which a wise and reflecting reader will see to be of great importance. Life is a fragment, it is an opportunity, it is a probation. Death is an end, that is, an end of this brief existence, and of what especially belongs to it. If we thought of life and death only under these aspects, we should err; but we should err if we neglected to take these aspects into consideration.
I. THE LOSSES OF THE DEAD.
1. They part with opportunities of knowledge which they enjoyed on earth.
2. They part with passions which they experienced whilst in the bodily life.
3. They part with possessions which they acquired in this world.
4. They are soon forgotten; for those who remember them themselves depart, and a faint memory or utter forgetfulness must follow. Death is a great change, and they who undergo it leave much behind, even though they may gain immeasurably more than they lose.
II. THE PREROGATIVES OF THE LIVING.
1. They have knowledge. This is doubtless very limited, but it is very precious. Compared with the knowledge which awaits the Christian in the future state, that which is within our reach now and here is as what is seen dimly in a mirror. Yet how can men be too grateful for the faculty in virtue of which they can acquaint themselves with truth of the highest importance and value? Knowledge of self, and knowledge of the great Author of our being and salvation, is within our reach. We know the limitation of our period of earthly education and probation; we know the means by which that period may be made the occasion of our spiritual good.
2. With all the living there is hope. Time is before them with its golden opportunities; eternity, time's harvest, is before them with all its priceless recompense. Even if the past has been neglected or abused, there is the possibility that the future may be turned to good account. For the dead we know that this earthly life has nothing in store. But who can limit the possibilities which stretch before the living, the progress which may be made, the blessing that may be won?
APPLICATION. It is well to begin with the view of life and death which is presented in this passage; but it would not be well to pause here. It is true that there is loss in death; but the Christian does not forget the assertion of the apostle that "to die is gain." And whilst there are privileges and prerogatives special to this earthly life, still it is to the disciple of Christ only the introduction and preparation for a life which is life indeed—life glorious, imperishable, and Divine.—T.
The joy of human life.
Optimists and pessimists are both wrong, for they both proceed upon the radically false principle that life is to be valued according to the preponderance of pleasure over pain; the optimist asserting and the pessimist denying such preponderance. It is a base theory of life which represents it as to be prized as an opportunity of enjoyment. And the hedonism which is common to optimist and to pessimist is the delusive basis upon which their visionary fabrics are reared. Pleasure is neither the proper standard nor the proper motive of right conduct. Yet, as the text points out, enjoyment is a real factor in human life, not to be depreciated and despised, though not to be exaggerated and overvalued.
I. ENJOYMENT IS A DIVINELY APPOINTED ELEMENT IN OUR HUMAN EXISTENCE. Man's bodily and mental constitution, taken in connection with the circumstances of the human lot, are a sufficient proof of this. We drink by turns the sweet and the bitter cup; and the one is as real as the other, although individuals partake of the two in different proportions.
II. MANY PROVISIONS ARE MADE FOR HUMAN ENJOYMENT. Several are alluded to in this passage, more especially
III. THE RELATION OF ENJOYMENT TO LABOR. The Preacher clearly saw that those who toil are those who enjoy. It is by work that most men must win the means of bodily and physical enjoyment; and the very labor becomes a means of blessing, and sweetens the daily meals. Nay, "the labor we delight in physics pain." The primeval curse was by God's mercy transformed into a blessing.
IV. THE PARTIAL AND DISAPPOINTING VIEW OF HUMAN LIFE WHICH CONSIDERS ONLY ITS ENJOYMENTS.
1. Pain, suffering, and distress are as real as happiness, and must come, sooner or later, to all whose life is prolonged.
2. Neither pleasure nor pain is of value apart from the moral discipline both may aid in promoting, apart from the moral progress, the moral aim, towards which both may lead.
3. It is, therefore, the part of the wise to use the good things of this life as not abusing them; to be ready to part with them at the call of Heaven, and to turn them to golden profit, so that occasion may never arise to remember them with regret and remorse.—T.
Diligence.
The prospect of death may add a certain zest to life's enjoyments, but we are reminded in this passage that it is just and wise to allow it to influence the performance of life's practical duties.
I. RELIGION HAS REGARD TO MAN'S PRACTICAL NATURE. The hand is the instrument of work, and is accordingly used as the symbol of our active nature. What we do is of supreme importance, both by reason of its cause and origin in our character, and by reason of its effect upon ourselves and upon the world. Religion involves contemplation and emotion, and expresses itself in prayer and praise; but without action all is in vain.
II. RELIGION FURNISHES THE LAW TO MAN'S PRACTICAL NATURE. We are expected to put up the prayer, "What wilt thou have me to do?" in response to this prayer, precept and admonition are given; and so the "hand findeth" its work.
1. True religion prescribes the quality of our work—that actions should be just and wise, kind and compassionate.
2. And the measure of our work. "With thy might" is the Divine law. This is opposed to languor, indolence, depression, weariness. He who considers the diligence and assiduity with which the powers of evil are ever working in human society will understand the importance of this urgent admonition.
III. RELIGION SUPPLIES THE MOTIVES TO DILIGENCE IN THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE PRACTICAL NATURE.