any department of science, Strive to excel in it : " Whatever your liand findeth to do, do it with all your might p." The point on which I would entertain a jealousy is, " the placing of your affections on any thing here below ; for they are to be reserved exclusively for things above i." But I am aware that there is great reason for caution on this head. I well know how easy it is to enter with zeal into earthly pursuits ; and how difficult to maintain the same ardour in the prosecution of heavenly things. Let me then remind you, that, whatever im- portance you may assign to the things of time and sense, they have no real importance, by reason of the superior importance of the things which are spiritual and eternal. These must occupy the whole soul, and engage all its powers. We must " run as in a race ;" and " strive as for the mastery ;" and " fight " as for our very lives : and we may rest assured, that the crown of victory that shall be awarded to us, will recom- pense all the labours we have endured, in the prosecution of our duty, and in the service of our God.]
P Eccl. ix. 10. 1 Col. iii. 2.
Eccles. vii. 16. Be not righteous overmuch.
THIS is the sheet-anchor of ungodly men. They hate to see a zeal for God, and therefore endeavour to repress it. From the days of Cain to this hour, they who have been born after the flesh, have per- secuted those who have been born after the Spirit ^ And when they find that neither contempt nor threat- enings will avail any thing, they will venture, as Satan before them did'', to draw their weapons from the very armoury of God.
It must be confessed, that the sense of this passage is not obvious at first sight ; and it has been variously interpreted by commentators. Some have thought it to be the speech of an infidel recommending Solomon, in reply to his observation in the preceding verse, to avoid an excess either in religion or in vice. But it is evidently a serious admonition given by Solomon himself. In ver. 15. he mentions two things which had appeared strange to him, namely. Many righteous
a Gal. iv. 29. >' Matt. iv. 6.