not, there is something nobler in the spectacle of a man going forth with eyes open to the dread conflict with the king of terrors, than in that of a brute expiring in uncon- scious stupidity. (4) If one thinks of him dying, as he often does die, like a Christian, it will be seen more absurd than ever to assert that a man hath no pre-eminence over a beast. IV. BoTB, DTING, PASS BEYOND TBE SPHERE OF BUMAN KNOWLEDGE. "Who knoweth the spirit of man, whether it goeth upward? and the spirit of the beast, whether it goeth downward to the earth?" (ver. 21). 1. Admitled so far as scientific knowledge is concerned. The agnostics of the Preacher's day, like those of modern times, could not say what became of a man's spirit, if he had one (of which they were not sure), after it had escaped from bis body, any more than they could tell where a beasb's- and the beast was as likely to have a spirit as the man-went to after its carcase sank into the soil. Whether it was the man's that went upward and the beast's downward, or vice versa, lay outside their ken. Their scientific apparatus did not enable them to report, as the scientific apparatus of the nineteenth century does not enable it to report, upon the post-mundane career of either beast or man; and so they assumed the position from which the agnostics of to-day have not departed, that it is all one with the man and the beast when the grave hides them, and that a man bath no pre- eminence over a beast. 2. Denied so far as religious knowledge is concerned. Refusing to hold that the anatomist's scalpel, or chemist's retort, or astronomei's telescope, or analyst's microscope are the ultimate tests of truth, and that nothing is to be credited which cannot be detected by one or other of these instruments, we are not so hopelessly in the dark about man's spirit when it leaves its earthly tabernacle as are agnostics whether ancient or modern. On the high testimony of this Preacher (eh. xii. 7), on the higher witness of Paul (1:: Cor. v. 1; Phil. i. 23), and on the highest evidence attainable on the subject (2 Tim. i. 10), we know that when the spirit of a child of God forsakes the body it does not disperse into thin air, but passes up into the Father's hand (Luke xxiii. 46), and that when a good man disappears from earth be forthwith appears in heaven (Lnke xxiii. 43; Phil. i. 23), amid the spirits of the just made perfect (Heb. xii. 23); so that another time we decline to endorse the sentiment that man hath no pre-eminence over a beast. V. BoTR ALIKE, PASSI.KO FROM TEE EARTH, NEVER MORE RETURN. "Who shall bring him back to see that which shall be after him?" (ver. 29). .Accepting this as the correct rendering of the words (for other interpretations consult the Exposition): 1. It may be granted that no human power can recall man from the grave any more than it can reanimate the beast; that the realm beyond the tomb, so far as the senses are con- cerned, is "an undiscovered country, from whose bourne no traveller returns." 2. It is contended that nevertheless there is a power which can and ultimately will despoil the grave of its human victims, and that man will eventually come back to dwell, if not upon the old soil and beneath the old sky, at least beneath a new heavens and upon a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. LEssoNs. 1. The dignity of man. 2. The solemnity of life. 3. The certainty of death.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vcrs. 1-8.-The manifold interests and occupations of life. There is nothing so interesting to man as human life. The material creation en~ages the attention and absorbs the inquiring activities of the student of physical science; but unless it is regarded as the expression of the Divine ideas, tlJO vehicle of thought and purpose, its interest is limited and cold. But what men are and think and do is a matter of concern to every observant and reflecting mind. The ordinary observer contemplates human life with curiosity; the politician, with interested motives; the historian, hoping to find the key to the actions of nations and kings and statesmen; the poet, with the aim of finding material and inspiration for his verse ; and the religioUJI thinker, that he may trace the operation of God's providence, of Divine wisdom and love. He who looks below the surface will not fail to find, in the events and incidents of human existence, the tokens of the appointments and dispositions of an all-wise 74 ECCLESIASTES ; OR, THE PREACHER. [cH. III. 1-22