Ver. 11.-0blivion and its consolation11. We have here- [, A NATURAL HUMAN ASPIRATION. We do not like to think that the time is coming when: we shall be wholly forgotten; we should like to live on in the memory of men, especially in the memory of the wise and good. We shrink from the idea of being entirely forgotten; we do not care to think that the hour will come when the mention of our name will not awaken the slightest interest in any human circle. There is something eiceedingly attractive in the thought of fame, and repelling in that ot' oblivio~ '!'here is that within us which responds to the fine line of Horace, in which he tells us that he has built for himself a monument more enduring than brass; and to the aspiration of our own ~filton, that he might prove to have written something which " the .world would not willingly let die." II. lTs INEVl'l'ABLE DISAPPOINTMENT, 1. It is indeed true that "the memory of the just is blessed," and that they who have lived well, loved faithfully, wrought nobly, suffered meekly, striven bravely, will be remembered and. honoured after death ; they- may be long, even very long, remembered and revered. .2. There are just a rew men .whose names and histories will go down the long stream of time, of whom the very last generation will speak and learn. 3.. But the vast majority of men will soon be forgotten ... Their names ·may be inscribed on memorial-stones, but in a very fow years none will care to read them; the eye that lights upon them will glance from them with indifference; there will be" no remembrance" of them. The world will take its way, will doits work and find its pleasure, regardless altogether of the fact that these men once trod its surface and now lie beneath it. ·III. OuR TRUE CONSOLATION. This is certainly not found in the commonness of our lot. It is no consolation to me that my neighbour is ns ill off as myself; that ought to be an aggravation of my trouble. It is, in fact, twofold. 1. We may be always living in the deathless influence ,our faithful lives exerted and banded down. For good influences do never die; they are scattered and lost, sight of, but they are not extin- guished; they live· on in human hearts and lives from generation to generation. 2. We shall be loved and honoured otherwhere. What if we be forgotten here upon the earth? Are there not other parts of the kingdom of God? And is there not one where God will have found for us a sphere, and in the minds and hearts of those who will be our friends and fellow-labourers there we shall hold our pince, honouring anJ. honoured, loving ancl beloved ?-C.
Ver. 18.-Knowledge and·sorrow. This is one of those utterances which contain milCh truth and leave much to be suppliea. '' In much wisdom is much grief," but there is muoh beside grief to be found iu it. So we look at- .,I.--THE TRUTH WilICH •lT CONTAINS. Of the wisdom or the knowledge which brings sadness to, the heartlwe have to reckon the following. 1. Our deeper insight into our- selves. As we go: on we find ourselves cll.pable of worse things th!ln we once supposed we were-selfish aims, evil thoughts, unhallowed passions, etc. Neither David nor Peter impposed himself capable of doing the deed to which he fell. 2. Childhood's corrected estimate of the good. We begin by thinking all good men and women perfect; then, as experience enlarges, we have reluctantly o.nd sorrowfully to acknow- ledge to ourselves that there aro fbws even in tho life and charactor of the best. Ami. ECCLESIASTES ; OH, 1'llE PHl<:ACliER.
uisillusion is a vory painful process. 3. Maturity's acquaintance with evil. We may go some way into life before we know one-half of" the evil which is in the world." Indeed, it is the wisdom and the duty of many-of even a large proportion of the rRce -not to know much that might be re"Vealed. But as a widening knowledge unveils the magnitude and heinousness of moral evil, there is sorrow indeed to the pure and s~-mpathetic soul. The more we know of the sins and the sorrows of our race-of its cruelties on the one hand and its sufferings on the other, of its enormities and its privations, of its toils and troubles, of its degradation and its death in life-the more ,ve arc distressed in spirit; "in much wisdom is much grief." II. lTs LARGE QUALIFICATIONS, There is much truth belonging to the subject which lies outside this statement, qualifying though not contradicting it. 1. There is much pleasure in the act of acquisition. The study of one of the sciences, the reading of history, the careful observation of nature and mastery of its secrets, the investigation of tbe nature of man, etc.,-there is a pure and invigorating delight in all this, ~- Knowledge is power; and it is power to acquire that which will surround us with 0omfort, with freedom, with friendship, with intellectual enlargement. 3. The know- ledge which is heavenly wisdom is, in itself, a source of elevation and of deep spiritual thankfulness and happiness. 4. The knowledge of God, as he is known to us in Jesus Christ, is the one unfailing source of unfading joy.-O.