The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 86

or withhold them from unworthy objects; or, if he be a statesman, the occasions when he shall go to war and return from it, are all predetermined by infinite wisdom. 5. Deterini71ed in t~eir durations. How long each in,lividual life shall continue (P~. xxxi. 15; Acts xvn. 26), how long each experience shall last, and how loug each action ~hall take to pe:rform, is equally a fixed and ascertained quantity, if not to man's knowledge, certmnly to that of the supreme Disposer of events. II. THE TIMES Alm SEASONS OF LIFE. 1. Appointed by and known only to God. As in the material and natural world the Creator hath appointed times and seasons, ae, e.g., to the heavenly bo<lies for their risiug and setting (Ps. civ. 19), to plants for their growing and decaying (Gen. viii. 22; Numb. xiii. 20; Judg. xv. 1; Jer. ]. 16; Mark xi.13), and to animals for their instinctive actions (Job xxxix. 1, 2; Jer. viii. 7), so in the human and spiritunl world has he ordained the same (Acts xvii. 26; Eph. i. 10; Titus i. 3); and these times and seasons, both in the natural and in the spiritual world, bath God reserved to himself (Acts i. 7). 2. Unavoidable and unalterable by man. As no man can predict the day of his death (Gen. xxvii. 2; Matt. xxv. 13), any more than know beforehand that of his birth, so neither can be fathom beforehand the incidents that shall happen, or the times when they shall fall out during the course c,f his life (Prov. xxvii. 1). Nor by any precontriving can he change by so much as a hair's breadth the place into which each incident is fitted, or the moment when it shall happen. . Learn : 1. The changefulness of human life, and the duty of preparing wisely to meet it. 2. The Divine order that pervades human life, and the propriety of acceptin" it with meekness. 3. The difficulty (from a human point of view) of living well, sine~ no man can be quite certain that for anything he does he has found the right season. 4. The wisdom of seeking for one's self the guidance of him in whose hauds are times and seasons (Acts i. 7). Vers. 11-14.-.All things beautiful; or, God, man, and tlte world. L THE DEAU• TU'UL RELATION OF THE WORLD TO GoD. Expressed by four words. 1. Dependence: no such tlting as independence, self-subsistence, self-origination, self-regulation, in mundane affairs. The universe, out to its circumference and in to its centre, from its mightiest structure down to its smallest detail, is the handiwork of God. Whatever philosophers may say or think upon the subject, it is simple absurdity to teach that the universe made itself, or that the incidents composing the sum of human life and experience have come to pass of themselves. It will be time enough to believe things are their own makers when effects can be discovered that have no causes. Persons of advanced (?) intelligence and culture may regard the Scriptures as behind the age in respect of philosophic insight and scientific attainment; it is to their credit that their writers never talk such unphilosophic and unscientific nonsense as that mundane things are their own creators. Their common sense--if not permissible to say their inspiration -appears to have been strong and clear enough to save them from being befooled by such vagaries as have led astray many modern savants, and to have taught them that the First Cause of all things is God (Gen. i. 1; Exod. xx.11; Neh. ix. 6; Job xxxviii. 4; Ps. xix.. 1; Isa. xl. 28; Acts xiv. 15; xvii. 24; Rom. xi. 36; Epb. iii. 9; Heb. iii 4; Rev. iv. 11). 2. Variety: no monotony in mundane affairs. Obvious as regards both the universe as a whole and its individual parts. The supreme Artificer of the former had no idea of fashioning all things after one model, however excellent, but sought to introduce variety into the works of his hands; and just this is the principle upon which he has proceeded in arranging the programme of man's experiences upon the earth. To this diversity in man's experience the twenty-eight instances of events and purposes given by the Preacher (vers. 2-8) allude; and this same diversity is a mark at once of wisdom and of kindness on the part of the Supreme. As the material globe would be monotonous were it all mountain nnd no valley, so would human life be uninteresting were it an unchanging round of the same few incidents. But it is not. If there are funerals and deaths, there are as well marriages and births; if nights of weeping, days of laughing; if times of war, periods of peace. 3. Order: no chance or accident in mundane affairs. To short-sighted and feeble man, human life is full of a.ccidents or chances; but not so when viewed from the standpoint of God. Not only does no event happen without his permission (Matt. x. l:19; Luke xii. 6), but OJI. III, 1-22.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER.