The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 69

of human life, so tho.t its beauty o.nd its blessedness are appreci:ited anrl pursuer\, so that, 011 the other hand, its ugliness and its evil are recognized and shunned. 'l'hci wisdom of the wise includes also that pre.ctical good sense which keeps its disci pies from the mistakes and entanglements that lead to destitution, which also leads its possessors to _heights of honour and well-being. (3) Joy. In the worship of Christ, in the service of man, in the culture of our own character, in walking along the path of sacred duty and holy usefulness, is abounding and abiding joy. 2. That sin is visited with penalty. Do we find that God giveth "to the sinner travail, to gather and to heap up"? We do. (1) Sin necessitates the worst of all bad labours-that of deliberately and persistently breaking down the walls of conscience, of breaking through the fences which the God of righteousness and love bas pnt up to guard his children from moral evil. . (2) Sin includes much hurtful and damaging struggle against the will and against the laws of the wise and good. Bad men have to encounter and to contest the opposition of the upright. (3) Sin frequently means low and degrading toil. The "sinner" is brought down so low that be is fain to "go into the fields to feed swine;" to do that from which he would once have indignantly recoiled. (4) Sin constantly condemns the toiler to labour on in utter discontent, if not positive wretcheclness of soul. Life without the light of heavenly truth. and the song of sacred service proves an intolerable burden.-C. Vers. 1-3.-;-.An experiment: riotous mirth. Solomon bad found that wisdom and knowledge a.re not the means by .which the search after happiness is brought to a. successful issue, He then r~solved to try if indulgence in sensual delights would yield any lasting satisfaction. This, as he saw, was a. course on which many entered, who like him desired happiness, and he would discov(;lr for himself whether or not they were nny nearer the goal than he was. And so he resolved to enjoy pleasure-" to give bis heart to wine," and "to lay hold of folly." Like the rich man in the parable, who said to bis soul, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry," so did be address bis heart, "Come, I will prove thee with mirth." He had tried. wisdom, and found it fruitless for his purpose, and now would try folly. He lays aside th.e. character and pursuits of a. student, and enters the company of fools, to join in. their revelry and mirth. The conviction that his learning was useless, either to satisfy his own cravings or to remedy the evils that exist in the world, made it easy for him to cast away, for a. time at any rate, the intellectual employments in which he .had engaged, and to live as others do who give themselves up to sensual pleasures. Wearled of the toil of thought, sickened of its illusions _ind of. its fruitlessness, he would find tranquillity and health of mind in frivolous gaiety and mirth. This was not an attempt to stifle his cravings after the highest good, for he deliberately determined to analyze his experience a.t every point, in order to discover whether any permanent gain resulted from his search in this new quarter. "I sought," he says, "in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom ; and to lay bold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which. they should do under the heaven all the days of their life." For the sake of others ns well as for himself, he would try this pathway and see whither it would lead. But the ex.periment failed. In a very .short time he discovered thnt vanity was here too. 'l'he laughter of fools was, as he says elsewhere (eh. vii. 6), like the crackling of burning thorns; the blaze lasted but for a. moment, and the gloom that followed was but the deeper and more enduring. "Where the fire of jovial revelry and boisterous mirth had been, there remained but cold, grey ashes. The mood of reckless enjoyment was followed by that of cynical rntiety and bitter disappointment. He said of.laughter, "It is mad," and of mirth, "What doeth it?" In his moments of calm refle~t1on, when he communed with his own heart, he recognized the utter fully of his expcrnnent, and felt that from bis own dear-bought e;xperience he could emyhatically warn _all i? time to come against seeking satisfaction for the soul in sensual pleasures. Not 111 tb 1s way can the huncrer and thirst with which the spirit of man is consumed be allayed. At most a short period of oblivion can be secured, from which the awakening is nll tho moro' terrible. The sense of personal resp~msibility, tho feeling that we aro called to seek the highest good and are doomed to unrest and misery until we find it, tho con- viction that our failures only make ultinmte success the more doubtful, is not to be 62 ECCLESIASTES; OR, 'l'HE PREACHER. [cu. n. 1-20,