false to contend that there is no delight, no satisfaction, in these sources of good. There is, for a while. 'l'here is a space during which they fill the heart as the wine fills the cup into which it is poured. The heart rejoices; it utters its joy in song; it declares itself to be completely happy. It" sits in the sun;" it rolls the sweet morsel between its teeth. It flattera itself that it has found its fortune, while the angels of God weep over its present folly and its coming doom. IV. ITS ACTUAL AND UTTER INSUFFICIENCY. (Ver. 11.) Pleasure may be coarse and condemnable; it may go down to fleshly gratifications (vers. 3, 8); it may be refined and chaste, may expend itself in designs and executions; it may be moderated and regulated with the finest calculation, so as to have the largest measure spread over the longest possible period; it may "guide itself with wisdom" (ver. 3). But it will be a failure; it will break down; it will end in a dreary exclamation of" Vanity!" Three things condemn it as a solution of the great quest after human good. 1. Experi- ence. This proves, always and everywhere, that the deliberate and systematic pursuit of pleasure fails to secure its end. Pleasure is not a harvest, to be sedulously sown and reaped; it is a plant that grows, unsought and uncultivated, all along the path of duty and of service. To seek it and to labour for it is to miss it. All human experience shows that it soon palls upon the taste, that it fades fast in the hands of its devotee ; that there is no company of men so utterly weary and so wretched as the tired hunters after pleasurable excitement. 2. Philosophy. 'l'his teaches us that a being u~ade for something so ·much higher than pleasure can never be satisfied with anythiug so low; surely we cannot expect that the heart which is capable of worship, of service, of holy love, of heroic consecration, of spiritual nobility, will be filled aud satisfied with " tho delights of the sons of men." 3. Religion. For this introduces the sovereign claims of the Supreme One; it places man in the presence of God; it shows a life of frivolity to be a life of culpable selfishness, of sin, of shame. It summons to e. purer e.nd a wiser search, to a worthier e.nd a. nobler course; it promises the peace which waits on rectitude; it offers the foy which only God can give, and which no man can take e.way.-0. Vera. 12-14.-Sagacity and stupidity. The "wisdom" and the "folly" of the text are perhaps best represented by the words" saga.city" and" stupidity." The distinction is one of the head rather than of the heart; of the understanding rather than of the entire spirit. We are invited, therefore, to consider- !. THE WORTH OF SAGACITY. 1. It stands much lower down the.n heavenly wisdom; that is the direct product of the Spirit of God, a.nd makes men blessed with a good which cannot be taken away. It places them above the reach of adversity, and makes them invulnerable to the darts of death itself (see ver. 14). 2. It has its own distinct advantages. "The wise man's eyes are in his head;" he sees whither he is going; he docs not delude himself with the idea that he can violate a.11 the laws of his nature with impunity. He knows that the wages of sin is death, that if he sows to the flesh he will ree.p corruption; he understands that, if he would enjoy the esteem of men and the favour of God, he must subdue his spirit, control his passions, regulate bis life according to the standaru.s of truth and virtue. This sagacity of the wise will therefore (1) se.ve him from some of the most egregious and fatal blunders; (2) keep him sufficiently near to the path of virtue to bo saved from the darker excesses and_ more crushing sorrows of life; (3) secure for himself and his family some measure of comfort &nd respect, and place some of the purer pleasures within his reach; (4) keep him within bearing of the truth of God, where he is more likely to find his way into the kingdom of God. II. 'l'nE PITIFULNESS OF STUPIDITY. "The fool w&!keth blindly." 1. He has no eye to see the fair and the beautiful around him, no heart to appreciate the nobility that might be within him or the glories that are above him. 2. He fails to discern the real wretchedness of his present condition-his destitution, his condemnation, his exile. 3. He does not shrink from the evil which impends. He is walking toward the precipice, below which is utter ruin, eternal death. Truly " the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and to depart from evil, that ill understanding."-C.
Vera. 18-24.-The complaint of the a1"cesiful. 'l'he man who labours and who fail~ ~POLEBIABTEB J ECCLESIASTES; on, THE PREACHER. [OH, II, 1-20.