The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 30

long in'one stay. 'All things are full of labour ancl weariness; man cannot utter ii: tho eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing'" (ver. 8)-by which he means that the changefnl condition is never done; there never comes a time when the eye says, "Enough ! " or the ear repeats, "Behold ! I am full." This view ot life had occurred to many before the Preacher's day (Gm. xlvii. 9; 1 Chron. xxix. 15; Job iv. .19, 20; vii. 6; viii, 9), as it has occurred to some since-to the Greek philosophers who described nature as in ii. state of perpetual flux, to modem poets such as Shakespeare, and to sacred writers like John (1 John ii. 17) and Paul (1 Cor. vii. 31.) ,III. THE WEARISOME MONOTONY OF LIFE. (Vers. 9, 10.) 1. What the Preacher could not have meant. 'l'hat no new occurrence ever happens on the earth, that nc new contrivance ever is devised, that no new experience ever emerges. Because since the Preacher's day multitudes of new discoveries and inventions have been ma,le ici all departments of science; while in the sphere of religion at least one new thing has taken place, viz. the Incarnation (,Ter, xxxi. 22), and another will take place (Isa. !xv. 17). 2. W11at the Preacher did mean. That the general impression made by life upon beholders is that of sameness. Going back to the above illustrations, he would have said, "See how it is in nature. No doubt on<l new day succeeds another, one gale of wind follows another, and one body of. waters hastens after another. But every day ancl always it is the same thing over again; the same old sun which reappears in the east; ancl the same gusts of wind to which we are accustomed that blow from the north to the south, and whirl about continually to all points of the compass; and the same stream that keeps 011 filling up its fountains and sending forth its waters to the sea. And if you will look at. the world of humanity it is the same.. A new.generation appears on the globe every thirty years, and every hour of every day new individuals are being born ; but they are substantially the same old men and women that were here before. 'Fed by the same food, hurt by the san1e weapons, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter' as those who preceded them, they go through the same experiences their fathers and mothers went through before them." This feeling of monotony is even more emphasized when attention is fixed on the individual. Try to think of how monotonous and wearisome an ordinary human life is I An attempt to realize this will awakep. surprise. •lV. THE UNIVERSAL OBLrv:ION INTO WIDCH MEN AND THINGS MUST EVENTUALLY BINK, (V:er. 11.) So obvious· is this that it scarcely need!! illustration. Consider what a small portion of the earth's incidents during the past six thousand years have survived in history, and how few of the world's gre&t ones have left behind them more than their names.. 'l'he memory has been pres~rve<l of a Flood, but what about the ordinary words nnd actions that make up everyday life during tho years between the Creation and the Deluge? A few particulars have been preserved of the histories of an Apraham and a David, a Sennacherib and a Nebuchadnezzar, an Alexander and a Cresar; but w4at about the myriads that formed their cqntempornries? How ~uch has been transm\tted to p11sterity of the history of these islands? • How few of the events of fast year have been recorded_? Ho\v many of those who then died Me still remembered? 'l'his is, no doubt, all as it shoultl be; but still it is a proof of the vanity of things below, if these be regarded simply in themselves. CONCLUSION. This view_ 9f life should not be possible to a Christian who enjoys the fuller and clearer light of the New Testament revelation, and views all things in their relations _to Go4, duty, and, immortality, Ver. 15.:_ Concerning crool,ed things and things wanting. I. lRREGUL!RITIES AND DE~'EOTS EXIST w THE WORLD'S PROGRAMME. This. tho teaching of th<l two proverbs, that crooked things cannot be straightened, i.e. by man, or.wanting things numbered. To the seeker a(ter wisdom, who surveys all the works that are dono under the suu, a11d gives his heart to search into and to seek out by wisdom with regard to these what is their end and issue, there appear in the physical, mental, and moral worlds nnomalies,, irregularities, e;x:crescences, deviations from the straight line of natural order, as well as defects, wants, imperfections, gaps, cleavages, interruptions, failures to reach completeness, which arrest attention and excite astonishment. 1. Of irregularities or crool,ed things, such phenomena a.s these may be cited: (1) In the physical worl<l, storms, tempests, nccidcnts, diseases, sudden and unexpected calamities. (2) Iu the  12 ECCLESIAS'l'ES; OH, 'l'HE PREACHJ!JR. [ell. I, 1--18.