The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 70

quenched by any such coarse anoclyne. Various reasons may bo found to explain why this kind of experiment failed and must fail. I. Jn the first place, it consisted in AN ABUSE OF NATURAL FAOULTIEB AND APPETITES. Some measure of joy and pleasure is needed for health of mind and body. Innocent gaiety, enjoyment of the gifts God has bestowed upon us, reasonable satisfaction of the appetites implanted in us, have all a rightful place iu our life. But over-indulgence in any one of them violates the harmony of our nature. They were 11e"l'er intended to rule us, but to be under our control and to minister to our happiness, and we cannot allow them to govern us without throwing our whole life into disorder, rr. In the second place, THE PLEASURE EXOITED IS ONLY TRANSITORY. From the very nature of things it cannot be kept up for any long time by mere effort of will; the brain grows weary and the bodily powers become exhausted. A jest-book is proverbially very tiresome reading. .At first it may amuse, but the attention soon begins to flag, and after a little the most brilliant specimen of wit can scarcely evoke a smile. The drunkard and the glutton find that they can only carry the pleasures of tbe table up to a certain point; after that has been reached the bodily organism refuses to be still further stimulated. III. In the third place, SUCH PLEASURE CAN ONLY BE GRATIFIED BY SELF- DEGRADATION. It is inconsistent with the full exercise of the intellectual faculties which distinguish man from the brute, and destructive of those higher and more spiritual faculties by which God is apprehended, served, and enjoyed. Self-indulgence in the gross pleasures of which we are speaking actually reduces man below the level of tbe beasts that perish, for they are preserved from such folly by the natural instincts with which they are endowed. IV. In the fourth place, THE INEVITABLE RESULT OF BUCH AN EXPERIMENT IS A DEEPER AND MORE ENDURING GLOOM, Self-reproach, enfeeblement of mind and body, satiety and disgust, come on when the mad fit is past, and, what is still worse, the apprehension of evils yet to come-the knowledge that the passions excited and indulged will refuse to die down; that they have a life and power of their own, and will stimulate and almost compel their slave to enter again on the evil courses which he first tried of his own free will and with a light heart. The prospect before him is that of bondage to habits which he knows will yield him no ,lasting pleasure, and very little of the fleeting kind, and must involve the enfeeblement and destruction of all his powers. Mirth and laughter and wine did not banish Solomon's melancholy; but after the feverish excitement they produced had passed away, they left him in a deeper gloom than ever, "Like phosphorus on a dead man's face, he felt that it was all a trick, a lie; and like the laugh of a hyena among the tombs, be found that the worldling's frolic can never reanimate the joys which guilt hns slain and buried." "I said of lauahter, It is mad: ancl of mirth, What doeth it?" The well-known story of the melaniholy patient being advised by a doctor to go and see Grimaldi, and answer- ing, "I am Grimaldi," and that of George Fox being recommended by a ministe!' w~om he consulted to dispel the anxieties which his spiritual fears and doubts and aspirations had excited within him, by "drinkiDg beer and dancing with the girls" (Carlyle, • Sartor Resartus,' ill. 1), may be used to illustrate the teaching.of our text. Some stanzas, too, of Byron's last poem give a pathetic expression to the feelings of satiety and disappointment which are the retribution of sensuality- ,, My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of love a.re gone: 'l'ho worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine a.Jone I "The fire that on my bosom preys Is lone as some volcanic isle ; No torch is kindled at its blaze- A funerol pile. "The hope, the fear, the jealous ea.re, , The exalted portion of the pain And power of love I cannot she.re, But wear the chain." J.W. ClJ. II. l--2G.] Eccu:srASTES; on, TIIE PRE.\CHEit,