The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 91

Ruler of the world. The manifold interests of our life are not regulated by chance; for "t-0 everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." I. LTFE'S PERIODS (ITS BEGINNING AND OLOSE) ARE APPOINTED BY GoD. The sacred- ness of birth and death are brought before us, as we are assured that "there is a time t-0 be born, and a time to die." The believer in God cannot doubt thnt the Divine Omniscience observes, as the Divine Omnipotence virtually effects, the introduction into this world, and the removal from it, of every human being. Men are born, to show that God will use his own instruments for carrying on the manifold work of the world; they die, to show that he is limited by no human agencies. They are born just when they are wanted, and they die just when it is well that their places should be taken by their successors. "Man is immortal till his work is done." JI. LIFE'S OCCUPATIONS ARE DIVINELY ORDERED. 'fhe reader of this passage is forcibly reminded of the substantial identity of man's life in the different aaes of the world. Thousands of years have passed since these words were penned, y~ to how large an extent does this description apply t-0 human existence in our own day I Organic activities, industrial avocations, social services, are common to every age of man's history. If men withdraw themselves from practical work, and from the duties of the family and the state, without sufficient justi.6.caUon, they are violating the ordinances of the Creator. He has given to every man a place to fill, a work to do, a service of helpfulness to render to his fellow-creatures. Ill. 1'HE EMOTIONS PROPER TO HUMAN LIFE ABE OF DIVINE APPOINTMENT. These are natural to man. The mere feelings of pleasure and pain, the mere impulses of desire and aversion, man shares with brutes. But those emotions which are man's glory and man's shame are both special to him, and have a great share in giving character to his moral life. Some, like envy, are altogether bad; some, like hatred, are bad or good according as they a.re directed; some, like love, are al ways good. The Preacher of Jerusalem refers to joy and sorrow, when he speaks of" a time to laugh, and a time to weep;" t-0 love and hate, for both of which he declares there is occasion in our human existence. There has been no change in these human experiences with the lapse of time; they are permanent factors in our life. Used aright, they become means of moral development, and aid in forming a noble and pious character. IV. THE OPERATION OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE IB APPARENT IN THE VARIED FORTUNES OF Hcr:MANITY. This passage tells of accumulation and consequent prosperity, of loss and consequent adversity. The mutability of human affairs, the disparities of the human lot, were as remarkable and as perplexing in the days of the Hebrew sage as in our own. .A.nd they were regarded by him, as by rational and religious observers in onr own time, as instances of the working of physical and social laws imposed by the Author of naturll himself. In the exercise of divinely entrusted powers, men gather together possessions and disperse them abroad. The rich and the poor exist side by side; aud the wealthy are every day impoverished, whilst the indigent are raised to opulence. These are the lights and shades upon the landscape of life, the shifting scenes in life's unfolding drama. Variety and change are evidently parts of the Divine intention, and are never absent from the world of our humanity. V. THE MORAL AND BPIBITUAL ISSUEB OF HUMAN LIFE DEAR MARKS 01' DlVINII WISDOM AND onDEB. It cannot be the case that all the phases and processes of our human existence are to be apprehended simply in themselves, as if they contained their own meaning, and had no ulterior ~ignificance. Life is not a kaleidoscope, but a picture; not the promiscuous sounds heard when the instrumentalists are "tuning up," but an oratorio; not a chronicle, but a history. There is a unity and an aim in life; but this is not merely artistic, it is moral. We do not work and rest, enjoy and suffer, hope and fear, with no purpose to be achieved by the experiences through which we pass. He who has appointed "a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven," designs that we should, by toil and endurance, by fellowship and solitude, by gain and loss, make progress in the course of moral and spiritual discipline, should gruw in the favour and in the likeness of God himself.-T. Vere. 9-13.-The mystery and the meaning of life. The author of Ecclesiastes was too wise to take what we call a one-sided view of human life. No doubt there are times and moods in which this human existence seems to us to be all made up of Olt, III, 1-22,) ECCLESIAS'fES; OR, THE PREACHER. 75