The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 75

vicious. Thie ie enough to poison all present enjoyment, and to paralyze all fnrther effort. Why should a man spend laborious days and sleepless niaht9, if this is to be the end of it all? What has be left to show for all bis exertions?"' What but weariness nod exhaustion, and the bitter reflection that all has been in vain? Yet a little time nfler be has been forced by death to part with hie possessions, and they will be made to minister to the frivolity and vice of one who has never laboured for them, and ultimately will be scattered like chaff before the wind. Thus a final discovery of the vanity of all earthly employments is made. The acquisition of wisdom and knowledge, the gratification of the pleasures of sense, the cultivation and indulgence of artistic tastes, bad all been tried as possible a.venues to lasting happiness, and tried in vain. To these must now be added the accumulation by prudent and lawful means, of great wealth. This, too, was discovered to be vanity. It could only be accomplished by years of toil, and brought with it fresh cares; and in the end all that bad been gained must be given up to another. Mortifying though the experiments had turned out to be, they bad at least been of negative value. Though they had not revealed where happiness was to be found, they had revealed where it was not to be found. The last disappointment, the discovery of the vanity of riches, taught the great truth which might become a clue to lead to the much-desired happiness, that "a man's life consisteth not in .the abundance of the things which he possesseth " (Luke xii. 15).-J. W. Vers. 24-26.-The condition of pure enjoyment. Up to this point the thoughts of our author have been gloomy and despairing. Wisdom is better, he declares, than folly, but death sweeps away bot,h the wise and the foolish. The learning of the sage, the fortune accumulated by the successful worker, represent the labours of a lifetime; but at the end, what are they worth? The results are twofold, partly internal and partly external. The student or worker acquires skill in the use of his faculties, he develops his strength, he becomes, as his life goes on, more proficient in his profession or craft; but death quenches all these attainments. He leaves to those who are perhaps unworthy of them all the external results of his labours, and perhaps in a very little time it will be difficult to find anything to remind one of him. We who have the light of Christian truth may have much to console us and give us strength, even when we are brought face to face with the dark and dreary facts upon which our author dwells. We may think of this life as a preparation for a new and higher existence in the world to come, and believe that every effort we make to use rightly the faculties God has given us will tend to equip us better for service of him in another state of being. But to our author's mind the thought of a future life is not vivid enough to be the source of consolation and strength. What then? Does he find no escape from the gloomy labyrinth of withcring doubt, and decide that happiness is a boon for which one may sigh in vain? No; strangely enough, at the very moment when the depression is deepest, light breaks upon him from an unexpected quarter. Simple joys, modernto hopes, contentment with one's lot, thankful acceptance of the gifts of God, may yield 11 pence and satisfaction unknown to those who are consumed by ambition, who ruakCJ riches, state, luxury, the object of their desires. The darkness of night will soon closCJ upon our lives, our tenure of our possessions is precarious in the extreme, but some measure of joy is within the reach of us all. In few but suggestive words tbo Preacher describes- I. THE NATURE OF A HAPPY LU'E. (Ver. 24.) "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour." At first one might think the judgment here expressed somewhat poor and gross, and unworthy of the reputation of the wise king to whom it is ascribed, not to say of the Word of God in which we find it. But when we look more closely into it, these impressions disappear. It is not an idle, useless life of self-enjoyment that is here commended to us, but one in which useful labour is scasoued by healthy pleasures. The man eats and drinks, and makes his soul enjoy good in his labour. The enjoyment is not such as to waste and exhaust the energies of the soul, otherwise it would be very short-lived. The risk of abusing the counsel in tile first part of the sentence is avoided by altendin" to the snfecruard 0 implied in the concluding words. It is not the decision of the scnst~alist, "Let us eat and tlrink; for to-morrow we die" (1 Cor. xv. 32), but  58 ECCLESIASTES; OR, 'l'HE PREACHER. [cu. m. 1-22.