The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 85

HOMILE'l'ICS. Vers. l-9.-.7'imes and seasons; or, Heaven's order in man's a_ffafrs. I. TDJ1: EVENTS AND PURPOSES OF LIFE. 1. Great in their number. The Preacher's catalogue exhausts not, but only exemplifies, the" occupations and interests," occurrences and experieoces, that constitute the warp and woof of mortal existence. lletwecn the cradle and the grave, instances present themselves in which more things happen than a.re here recorded, and more designs a.re attempted and fulfilled than are here contemplated. There are also cases in which the sum total of experience is included in the two entries, "born," "died;" but the generality of mortals live long enough to suffer and to do many more things beneath the sun. 2. Manifold in their variety. In one sense and at one time it may seem as if there were "no new thing under the sun" (eh. i. 9), either in the history of the race or in the experience of the individual; but at another time and in another sense an almost infinite variety appears in both. The monotony of life, of which complaint is often heard (eh. i. 10), exists rather in the mind or heart of the complainant than in the texture of life itself. What more diversified than the events and purposes the Preacher has catalogued? Entering through the gateway of birth upon the mysterious arena of existence, the human being passes through a succession of constantly shifting experiences, till he makes his exit from the scene through the portals of the grave, planting and plucking up, etc. "All the world's a. stnge, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in hie time plays many parts, Hie acts being seven ages." (' As You Like It,' a.et ii sc. 7.) 3. .Antithetic in their relations. Human life, like man himself, may almost be characterized as a mass of contradictions. The incidents and interests, purposes and plans, events and enterprises, that compose it, are not only manifold and various, but also, it would seem, diametric in their opposition. Being bom is in due course succeeded by dying; planting by plucking up; and killing-it may be in war, or by administration of justice, or through some perfectly defensible cause-if not by actual raising from death, which lies confessedly beyond the power of man (1 Sam. ii. G; 2 Kings v. 7), at least by healing every rno.lady short of death. Breaking down, whether of material strnctures (2 Chron. xxiii. 17) or of intellectual system~, whether of national (Jer. i. 10) or religious (Gal. ii.18) institutions, is after an interval followed by the building up of those very things w&ich were destroyed. Weeping endureth only for a night, while joy cometh in the morning (Ps. xxx. 5). Dancing, on the other hand, gives place to mourning. In short, whatever experience man at any time has, before he terminates his pilgrimage he may almost confidently count on having the opposite; and whatever action he may at any see.son perform, s.nother season will almost certainly arrive when he will do the reverse. Of every one of the autinomics cited by the Preacher, man's experience on the earth furnishes examples. 4. Fixed in their times. Though appearing to come about without any order or arrangement, the events and purposes of mundane existence are by no means left to the guidance, or rather no-guidance, of chance; but rather have their places in the vast worl<l-plan determined, and the times of their appearing fixed. As the hour of each man's entrance into life is decreed, so is that of his departure from the same (Hob. ix. 27; 2 Tim. iv. 6). 'l'he date at which he shall step forth upon the active business of life, represented in the Preacher's catalogue by "planting and plucking up," "bi,eaking down and building up," "casting away stones aud gathering stones together,"" getting and losing;" the period at which he shall marry (ver. 4), with the times at which weddincrs and funerals (ver. 4) shall occur in his family circle; the moment when he shall b; called upon to stand up valiantly for truth and right amongst his contem- poraries (Prov. xv. 23), or to preserve a discreet and prudent silence when ta!k would be folly (Prov. x. 8), or even hurtful to the cause he serves; the times when he shall either suffer his affections to flow forth in an uninterrupted stream towards the good,  68 ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. [cu. m. 1-2'.!.