The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 45

receive us into everlasting habitations when the days of our stewardship Bl'e over, and this visible, tangible world fades away from us. II. The second reflection of the.royal Preacher is that BUMAN LIFE IS lNBUFFERABL~ MONOTONous ; that under all outward. appearances of vadety and ohabge there is B dreary sameness (vers. 4-10), Generation succeeds generation, but the stage .iB the same on which they play their parts, and one performance is very like auother. The incessant motion of the sun, travelling fro~1,1 east to west; the shifting .of the wind from one point to another, and th!ln back again; the speedy current of the rivera to joiJ;>. the ocean, which yet is not filled by them, but returns them in various. ways. to .water tpe earth, &f!d to feed the springs," whence the rivers come;" the commonplace events of human hfo, are all referred to as examples of endless and lllOnotonous variation. The law of mutability, without progress, seems to the speaker to preva,il in hea.ven,nnd in earth'- to rule in the material world, in human society, and in the; Ufe of the.individual..,. The lordship over creation, bestowed upon man, appeared to him a vain fancy. .Man himself was but a stranger, sojourning here for but a very short time, coming like 31 wande1:ing bird from the outer darkness into the light and warmth _of a festive_ hall, and soon flitting out back again into the darkness. And, to one in this sombre mood, it is not wonderful that all natural phenomena should wear the aspect of instability and, change. To the pious mind of the psalmist the s~ suggested thoughts of Jlod's glory and power; the majesty of the creature gave him a more e:xa}tedidea of the greatness of the Crea.tor, and he expatiated upon the splendo.ur of that light that rules the day. "The heavens were his tabernacle; " morning by morning he was as "a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race.'' Our Saviour sa..w. in the same phenomenon a pz:oof of God's impartial and bountiful love to the children, of men: "He maketh his sun to rise upon the eviLand ,the good." But. to tha melancholy and brooding mind of our author nothing more was:1111ggested. by it than monotonous reiteration, a dreary routine of rising and. setting.: '' The s_un also e.riseth, and the sun goeth doy;n, and hasteth to his place :where h1;1 arm1e.'~ '! He.i11suea forth, day after day, from the east, mounts .up the vault of heaven until he .hu reached the meridian, and then he il.escends at once toward8 the western horiz.on, He never stops in his course at midday, as though he had attained the end for which he issued forth with the dawn; he never sinks beneath the horizon to enjoy repose. Even throughout the -night he is still ha.slening onward, that, at the appointed hour, he may:again reach his eastern starting-place. The wind, great though its changes may be,·seems never to have accom- plished the purpose for which it puts forth its power. It•never subsides into a state of lasting quiescence; it never even finds a station •Which it can permanently occupy, It 'veereth about continually,' yet it ever 'bloweth age.in according to. its circuits.' The streams flow onward to the ocean; but the time never comes when the sea, filled to overfu>wing, refuses to receive their waters. The thirst of th!l sea. is never quenched; the waters of the rivers are lost; and yet, with unavailing con11tancy, they still poul' their contributions into its bosom" (Tyler). And so with regard to all the ot]ler things on which the eye rests, or of which th1:1 :ear hears-weariness clothes everything; an unutterable monotony amid their changes and variations. Human life, too, all through, is characterized ·by the same unrest and ceaseless, fruitless l~bour. Sometimes a new discovery seems to be made; the monotony. seems to be broken,. and fresh and great results are .anticipated by those who are ignorant of the world's past history. But the initiated, those whose experience has made them wise, or whose knowledge has made them learned, recognize the new. thing as"something that was known in times long ago; they can tell how barren it was of result8 then, how little, therefore, can be expected from it now. There is scarcely anything more discouraging, especially to the you.;.g, than this kind of moralizing. We feel, perhep~. that we can carry out some schemQ that will be of benefit to the societyabout u.:s, and are met with lamentable ~counts or how similar schemes were once tried and failed disastrously.· ~Ve feeL moved:to attack the evils that we meet in the world, and are assured that they are too great, and our own strength too puny for us to accomplish anything worth while. And in the mean time our fen•our grows cold, our courage oozes away, and we really lose the power for good we mio-bt have had. Now, this teaching of Solomon is no.t meant for. the young and hopeful. Indeed, those who collected together the bookij of lhe ~Id 'l'estament were rather doubtful about including Ecclesiastes among the others, and 1t rau a narrow lilt. 1. 1-18.J ECCLESIASTES ; OR, 'l'HE PREACHER. 27