The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 109

2. On the assumption that there is a hereafter, it is less certain that the dead are more to be praised than the living. It depends on who the dead are, anJ. what the kind of existence is into which they have departed. (1) lf they have lived unrighteously on earth, it will not be safe, even on grounds of natural reason, to conclude that their condition in the unseen land into which they have vanished is better than that of the living who are yet alive, even should these also be wicked; since for these there are still time and place for repentance, which cannot be affirmed of the ungodly dead. (2) If their lives on earth have been pio~.g. if as Christiane they have fallen asleep in Jesus-it need hardly be doubted that their condition ie better even than that of the godly living, who are still dwellers in this vale of tears, subject to imperfections, exposed to temptations, and liable to sill. II. THE SECOND FALLACY. That better than both the living and the dead are the not yet born. 1. On the assumption that this life is all, it is not universally true that not to have been born would have been a preferable lot to having been born and being dead. No doubt it is sad that one born into this world is sure, while on his pilgrimage to the tomb, to witness spectacles of oppression such as the Preacher describes; and sadder that many before they die will be the victims of such oppressions; while of all things, perhaps the saddest is that a man may even live to become the perpetrator ot such cruelties; yet no one can truly affirm that human life generally contains nothing but oppression on the one side and tears upon the oth_er, or that in any individual's lire naught exists but wretchedness and woe, or that in the experiences of most the joys do not nearly counterbalance, if not actually outweigh, the griefs, while iu that of not a few the pleasures far exceed the pains. 2. On the assumption of a hereafter, only one case or class of cases can be pointed to in which it would have been decidedly better not to have been born, viz. that in which one who has been born, on departing from this world, passes into an undone eternity. Christ instanced one such case (Matt. xxvi. 24); and if there be truth in the representations given by Christ and hie apostles of the ultimate doom of those who die in unbelief and sin (Matt. xi. 22; xiii. 41, 42; xxii. 13; x.xiv. 51; John v. 29; 2 'l'hess. i. 9; Rev. xxi. 8), it will not be difficult to see that Ill their case also the words of the Preacher will be true. 3. In every other instance, but chiefly in tltat of the good, who does not see how immeasurably more blessed it is to hav~ been born t For consider what this means. It means to have been made in the Diviue image, endowed with an intellect and a heart capable of holding fellowship with and i;erving God. And if it also signifies to have been born into a state of sin and misery in consequence of our first parents' fall, it should not be forgotten that it signifies, in Cll, IV, 1-16.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. !)3