"Absumet hares Cmcnb11 digaior (ver. 24); Knobel, the arbitrary distribution Servatll ccntum olavibus." of the goo<l things of this life; but, put thus baldly, this could hardly be terme<I a" feed- The moral government of God is here recog- ing on wind;" nor could that expression be nized, ns below, eh. iii. 15, 17, etc., and a applied to the "gifts of God" to which further thought is added on the subject of Dullock confines the reference. Wright, retribution: That he may give to him that is Hengstenberg, Gratz, nnd others deem that good before God. This idea is found in what is meant is the collecting and heaping Prov. xxviii. 8, "He that nugrnenteth his up of riches by the sinner, which has already substance by usury 11nd increase, gathereth been decided to be vanity (nrs. 11, 17, 18); it for him thot hath pity upon the poor;" and this would limit the general conclUBion and eh. xiii. 22, "The wealth of the sinner to a particular instance. 'faking the view is lo.id up for the righteous" (comp. Job contained in ver. 2-l as the central idea or xxvii. 16, 17). So in the parable of the the passage, we see that Koheleth feels that talents, the talent of the unprofitable servant the restriction upon man's enjoyment of is given unto him who had made best use labour imposed by God's moral government of liis money (Matt. x.xv. 28). This also is makes that toil vain because it.a issne fa not vanity. It is a question what is the refer- in men's hands, o.nd it is a striving for or ence here. Delitzsch considers it to be the o. feeding on wind bccau,e the result is striving after ple11snre in ft.Ild from labour unsatisrying and vanishes in the grasp.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-11.-The vanity of pleasure-an experiment in thru stages. I. THE WAY OF SENSUOUS ENJOYMENT. (Vere. 1, 2.) In this first stage Solomon, whether the real or the personnted king, may be viewed as the representative of mankind in genera.I, who, when they cast aside the teachings and restraints of religion, exclude from their minds the thought of a Divine Being, erase from their bosoms all convictions of duty, and refuse to look into the future, commonly addict themselves to pleasure, saying," Enjoy- ment. be thou my god;" prescribing to themselves as the foremost task of their lives to minister to their own gratification, and adopting as their creed the well-known maxim," Let us ea.t and drink; for to-morrow we die" (1 Cor. xv. 32). 1. The investi- gation was vigorously conducted. The Preacher was in earnest, not merely thinking iu his heart, but addressing it, rather like the iich farmer in the parable (Luke xii. 19) than like the singer in the psalm (xvi. 2), and stirring it up as the brickmakers ot Babel did one another: "Go to now I" (Gen. xi. 3, 4). That the investigation was so conducted by the real Solomon may be inferred from the preserved details of his history (1 Kings x. 5; xi. 1, 3); that it has often been so conducted since, not merely in fiction, as by Goethe's 'Faust,' but in actual life, as by 'Abelard and Heloise' in the eleventh century, admits of demonstration; that it is being at present so conducted by many whose principal aim in life is not to obey the soul's noblest impulses, but to hamper the body's lower appetite, is palpable without demonstration. 2. The result !,as been clearly recorded. 'l'he Preacher found the way of pleasure as little fitted to conduct to felicity as that of wisdom; discovered, in fact, that lan!!;hter occasioned by indulgence in sensual delights was only a species of insanity, a kind of delirious intoxi- cation which stupefied the reason and overthrew the judgment, if it did not lead to self- destruotion, and that no solid happiness ever ea.me out of it, but only vanity and strivi □ g after wind. So has every one who has sought his chief good in such enjoyment found. They who live in pleasure are dead while they live (1 'l'im. v. 6)-dead to nll the soul's higher aspirations; are self-deceived (Titus iii. 3); and will in the end have a rude awakening, when ihey find that their short-lived pleasures (Heb. xi. 25) have only been nourishing them for slaughter (Jas. v. 5). II. Tm: WAY O!l' BANQUETING A.ND REVELRY. (Ver. 3.) In this second stnge of the experiment; neither Solomon nor the Preacher (if he wns different) stood alone. The path on which the ancient investigator now de1licts himself as entering had been and still is: 1. Much travelled. The number of those who abandon themselves to wine and wassail, drunkennesd and dissipation, chambering and wantonness, may not be so great as that of those who join in the 1mrsuit of pleasure, rnnny of whom would disdain to partake of the intoxicating cup; but still it is sufficiently large to justify the epithet employed. 2. Appallingly fatal. Apart altogether from the rightness or the wrongness ECCL.ESlASTES; OR, THE l'IlEACllEU, [en. u. 1-26,