we see those who promised themselves years wherein to enjoy their newly-acquired wealth, cut short, and called in an instant to their great account : we see it continually before our eyes : the messenger of death is sent to many, who think of their end as little as any of us can do ; and the sentence, " Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee," is executed with- out any previous notice or expectation. If it be thought that still, if not in their own persons, yet in their heirs, they enjoy the things for which they have laboured ; I answer, that they are often deprived of those very heirs, on whose aggrandize- ment they had set their hearts ; and are constrained to leave their wealth to others who are comparatively strangers to them. Moreover, supposing their destined heir to succeed to their wealth, they little know what effect it may have upon him, and whether he may not dissipate it all in a tenth part of the time that it took them to amass it. Solomon mentions this as a very great drawback upon human happiness : "I hated all my ' labour which I had taken under the sun; because I should leave it to the man that shall be after me ; and who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool ? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewn myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity^." It is probable that Solomon saw how weak his son Rehoboam was : and certainly, of aU the instances that ever occurred of the vanity of human grandeur, this is the greatest : for Solomon's head was scarcely laid in the grave, before ten of the tribes out of the twelve revolted from his son, and, instead of being his subjects, became his rivals and ene- mies^: and in the space of five years afterwards, all the treasures, with which Solomon had enriched both his own house and the temple of the Lord, were taken away by an invading enemy ; and brazen shields were made by his son to replace the golden shields with which the temple had been adorned s. How strongly does this illustrate those words of David which imme- diately follow my text ! " Surely every man walketh in a vain shew : surely they are disquieted in vain : he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them." Assuredly, all our feelings, whether of hope or fear, whether of joy or sorrow, whether for ourselves or others, would be moderated, if only the thought of the transitoriness and uncertainty of human aifairs were once duly impressed upon our minds : " those who have wives, would be as though they had none ; those who weep, as though they wept not; and those who rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; those who buy, as though they bought not : and those who use this world, as not abusing it :" the one thought, I say, how " transient every thing in
e Eccles. ii. 18, 19. f 1 Kings xii. 16, 19. g 1 Kingsxiv. 25—27.