The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 84

iooking- nt 11H' mn1ter merely externally.and like, is powerless to control the foroee of inking noL into considemtion any higher nature nnd the providentio.l e.rr1mgements noLinn, no one knows the destiny of the of the world, his duty ancl hie happiness living powers, whether God deals differ- consist in enjoying the present, in making ently with the spirit of man and of beast. the best of life, o.nd availing himself of the Phenomenally, the principle of life in both bounties which the mercy of God places be- is identical, and its cessation is identical; fore him. Thus he will free himself from and what becomes of the spirit in either anxieties e.nd cares, perform present labours, case neither eye nor mind can discover. attend to J.>Iesent duties, content himself The dfo!i,,ction which reason or religion with the daily round, nnd not vex his heo.rt sssumes, "iz. that man's spirit goes upward with solioitnde for the future. There is no and the brute's downward, is incapable of Epicureanism here, no recommendation of proof, is quite beyond experience. What is sensual enjoyment; the author simply ad- me£1nt by "upward" and "downward" may vises men to mo.ke a thankful use of the be se,-n by reference to the gnome in Prov. blessings which God provides for them. For xv. 24, " To the wise the way of life goeth who shall bring him to see what shall be upward, that he may depart from Sbeol after him 1 The Revised Version, by insert- beneath." The contrast shows that Sheol ing "baok "-Who shall bring him bacl, to is regarded as a place of punishment or see ?-affixes a meaning to the clause which annihilation; this is further confirmed by it need not e.nd does not bear. It is, indeed, Ps. xlix. 14, 15, " They are appointed as a commonly interpreted to signify that man flock for Sheol: death shall be their shep- knows and can know nothing that happens herd ... their beauty shall be for Sheol to him after death-whether he will exist to consume. . . . But God will redeem my or not, whether he will have cognizance of soul from the power of Sheol ; for he shall what passes on earth, or be insensible to nll receive me." Koheleth neither denies nor that befalls here. But Koheleth has com- affirms in this passage the immorte.lity of pleted that thought already; his argnm'lnt the soul; that he believed in it we learn now turns to the future iu this life. Use from other expressions; bnt he is not con- the present, for you cannot be sure of the cerned with parading it here. Commen- future ;-this is his exllortation, So he says tators qnote Lncretius' sceptical thought ( eh. vi 12), "Who can tell a man what shall (' De Rer. Nat.,' i. 113-116)- be after him under the sun?" where the ex- pression," under the sua,'' shows that earthly " lgnoratur enim qum sit naturo. animai, life is meant, not existence after deo.tb. Nata sit, nn contra nascentibus insinuetnr, Ignorance of the future is a very common Et simnl intereat nobiscnm. morte di- topic throughout the book, but it is the remta, terrestrial prospect that is in view. '!'here An tenebras Orci vii,at vastasque lacunas." would be little force in urging the impotence "·we know not what the nRtnre of the soul, of men'~ efforts towards their own ha.ppiness Born in the womu, or at the birth infused, by the consideration of their ignorance of Whether it dies with us, or wings its way what may happen when they e.re no more; Unto the gloomy pools of Orcns vast." but one me.y reasonably exhort men to cease to torment themselves with hopes and feo.rs, But Koheleth's inquiry suggests the possi- with labours that me.y be useless and pre- bility of a different destiny for the spirits of parations that may never be needed, by the mau and brute, though he does not at this reflection that they cannot foresee the future. moment make any definite assertion on the and that, for all they know, the po.ins which subject. Later on he explains the view they take may be utterly wasted (cf. eh. vii. taken by the believer in Divine revelation 14; ix. 3). Thus in this section there is ( eh. ::.ii. 7). neither scepticism nor Epicureanism. In Ver. 22.-After all, the writer arrives at brief, the sentiment is this-There o.re in- the conclusion intimated in ver. 12; only justices and anomalies in the life of men here the result is gathered from the acknow- and in the course of this world's events ledgmenl of man's impotence (vera. 16-18), which man cannot control or alter; these as there from the experience of life. Where- may be righted e.nd compensated hereafter. fore I peroeive tha.t there is nothing better, Mea.utime, man's happiness is to make the etc.; rather, so, or wherefore I saw that there best of the present, and cheerfully to enjoy wa! nothing, etc. As man is not master of what Providence olfers, without e.nxioua his own lot, canuot order oven ta aa he would care for the future. OD, Ill, 1-22,] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 67