The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 29

wny. 5. But a dt:eply thinking and religious man. When he looked \lpon the,myste1·y of life he felt prrplexed. He saw that, apart froru God and religion, life was au emptiness and vanity. Yet was he not thereby driven to despair, or.impelled to reuo.unce lifo ae an unmixe"d evil; but rather offered it as his opinion that man'11 highest ·duty was to fear God and keep his commandments, to accept whatever good Ptovidence might pour !nto_his cup, bear :with ~quanimity and submission whatever trials might be mingled m Ins lot, and prepare himself for the moment when he should pass into the unseQn tp render an account for the things done in the Qody (2 Cor. v. 10). . . , , ,, n·. 'l'HE PREACHER'S AIM. Neither: 1. To expound the doctrines of pessimism-to show" that the past has been like the present," and 'f:t)le .present like that which is.to come," that "the present is bad," that" the past has not been better," and" that the future will not be preferable" (Ronan). Nor.: 2. To furnislt an,autobiograpltical con~ /ession (ideal, but based on personal experiences) of the progt'Css of a Jewish youth from scepticism through sensuality to faith (Plumptre). But PO!Sllibly: 3. To ~omj{}r_t God's l'eople, the Hebrew Chw·ch, under oppression-that of Persian rule, e.g.,supposiog :t.he book to be a late composition, by showing them the.vanity of earthly things.,.,and exhorting them " to seek elsewhere their happiness; to draw it from those inexhaµstible eternal fountains, which even at that time_were open to all who .chos.e -to come.'.' (Hengstenberg). And certainly: 4. To cxhib.it tM t,:ue secret offelicity in the miclst of life's vanities, which consisted, as above explained, in fearing God and keeping his commandments. , • . LESSONS. 1. The inspiration of a Scripture not dependent on a knowledge of its date or author. 2. The value of.the Bible as a key to the problem of the uuiverse. 3. The succession of Hea.venasent preachers that have appeared all down the centuries. Vers. 2-11.-" Vanity of vanities.", I. THE. UNPROFITABLE CHA.R!CTER OF ALL RUMAN LABOUR. (Ver. 3.) Passing over the pathetic picture these vvords.instii:ictively call up of humau life .as a ceaseless round of toil,--a picture which moclern·ci:vilj~ation, with all its ,appliance& and refinements, has not obliterated, ,but rather;in the experience of many, painted in still more lurid colours; a picture ,which has always possessed fo1· poetic minds, sacred (Job vii. 1, 2) no less than profane (ThoIJl.a.$_, Hood, 'Song of. the Shirt'), a peculiar fascination-readers may note the ·melancholy! truth t6 which, the Preacher here adverts, viz. that the solid outcome of human labour, in the shape of permanent advantage to either society at large or the. individual, is compara,ti:vely smalL 1. This cannot rn.ean that labour. is wholly useless (eh. v. 19), since withou1, labour man cannot find that bread which is needful for his bodily snsteoa.nce. (Gen. iii. 19). It wonld be misconceiving the Preacher to suppose he disapproved-of all that has been effected by human industry and genius .to enrich, enlighten, and civilize the race; or desired to teach that men had better times of it on earth when they lived like sa,vages upon the spontanEOus fruits of the earth. 2. Nor is it likely that he designed to glance at what has been a sore evil under the sun ever since men began ,to divide .theruselvel$ into labourers and capita.lists, viz. the small portion of labour's fruitS; which usua.ll,y fall to the form.er, without whom there would be little or no fr.nits at all.,· 3, It is rathet probable ~hat the writer w~ thin~ing, no~ ~f l~bourers so ca.ll?d, to the exclusion of other wor~ers, but :o.f all toilers witl1ou~ 1istinction! ~hen; he said that the outco~e ,of man's activity, so far at least as attam1ng to felicity was concerned, was practically nothing. . -- • -· · · H. 'l'1IE UNCEASING CHANGE TO WHICH ALL MUNDANE THINGS ARE SUBJECT. (Vera. 4--7.) 1. Illustrated in four particulars. (1) 'fhe passing by of hu°;lan genera~ions,. iu comparison with which the globe seems stable (ver. 4).; (2) the daily revolution of the sun (ver. 5); (3) the circling of the winds (ver. 6); and (4) the returniug of the rivers to the seas (ver. 7). The writer means no.t to assert that these ditferent cycles have no uses in the economy of nature-which uses may be here illustratedi· merely he pitches upon what belon_g~ to them in common, the element ~f changefulness, to him a picture of man's cond1t10n on the earth generally. 2. Explained. byfo.ur clauses. It is as if he said, "Look around and behold I All things on earth are_ perpetually on the move-the sua in the sky, the winds in the firmament, the clouds in ,the air, the waters in the ocean, the rivers on the meadow; man himself upon the surfaco of the gluuc. Nothing benrs the stamp of finality. Everything is shifting. Nothing remains CIT. I, -,.18.J ECCLESIAS'fES; OR, THE PREACHER. 11