The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 111

nuthor of all misery, one of the seven deadly sins, the cushion upon which the devil chiefly reposes, and a great cause not only of melancholy, but of many other diseases" (Burton). HI. 'J'HE SAGACIOUS MORALIZER. 1. His character defined. Neither of the two former, he is a happy mean between both. If he toils not like him who always succeeds, be loafs not about like the fool who never works. If he amasses not wealth, be equally escapes poverty. Re works in moderation, and is contented with a com- petence. 2. His wisdom ro;tolled. If he attains not to riches, he avoids t.he sore travail requisite to procure riches, and the vexation of spirit, or "feeding upon wind," which riches bring. If he succeeds in gathering only one fistful of the goods of earth, be has at least the priceless pearl of quietness, including ease of mind as well as comfort of bodY. LEsso~s. 1. Industry and contentment two Christian virtues (Rom. xii. 11; Eph. iv. 28; 1 Tim. vi. 8; Heb. xiii. 5). 2. Idleness and sloth two destructive sins (Prov. xii. 24; eh. x. 8). Vers. 9-12.-Two better than one; or, companionship versm isolation. I. THE DISADVANTAGES OF ISOLATION. 1. Its causes. Either natural or moral, providentially imposed or deliberately chosen. (1) Examples of the former: the individual who has no wife or friend, son or brother, because these have been removed by death (Ps. lxxxviii. 18); the traveller who joumeys alone through some uninhabited waste (Job xxxviii. 26; J er. ii. 6) or voiceless solitude; a stranger who lands on a foreign shor<', with whose inhabitants he can hold no converse, because of not understanding their speech, and who lacks the assistance of a friendly interpreter. (2) Instances of the la.tter: the younger son, who forsakes the parental roof, leaving behind him parents, brothers, and sisters, as well as friends and companions, acquaintances and neighbours. and departs into a far country alone to see life and make a fortune; the elder brother, who, when the old people have died, and the younger branches of the family have removed, remains unmarried, because he chooses to live entirely for himself; the buey merchant, self-contained and prosperous, who stands apart from his employees, and, without either colleague or counsellor, partner or assistant, takes upon his own broad shoulders the whole weight and responsibility of a large "concern;" the student, who loves his hooks better than his fellows, and, eschewing intercourse with these, broods in solitude over problems too deep for his unaided intellect, that might be solved in a few hours' talk with a friend; the selfish soul, who has heart to give to no thing or person outside of self, and who fears lest hie own stock of happiness should be diminished were he in an inadvertent moment to augment that of others. 2. Its miseries. Manifold and richly deserved-at least where the isolation springs from cauoes moral and self-chosen. .Amongst the lonely man's woes may be enumerated these: (1) the absenr.e of those advantages and felicities that arise from companionship -a theme treated of in the next main division of this homily; (2) the intellectual and moral deterioration that inevitably ensues on the suppression of the soul's social instincts, and the attempt to educate one's manhood apart from the family, the com- munity, the race, of which it forms a part; (3) the inward wretchedness that by lhe just decree of Heaven attends the crime (where the isolation spoken of assumes this form) of living entirely for self; and, (4) asido from ideas of crime and guilt, the insatiable greed of self, which makes even larger demands upon one's labour, and deeper inroads upon one's peace, than all the claims of others would were the soul to honour these, and which, like an 11npitying taskmaster, impels the soul to unceasing toil, and fills it with unending care (ver. 8; cf. eh. ii. 23). . II. THE BENEFITS OF COMPANIONl:iHII'. The "good reward" for their labour which two receive in preference to one points to the advantages that flow from union. These are four. 1. Reciprocal assistance. 'fhe picture sketched by "the great orator" is tbat of two wayfaring men upon a dark and dangerous road, who are helpful to ench other in turn as each stumbles in the path, rendered difficult to tread by gloom over- head or uneven places underfoot. Whereas each one by himself might deem it baz~rdous to pursue his journey, knowing that if he fell when alone he might ho quito unable to rise, and might even lose his life through exposure to the inclemencies of the night or the perils of the place, each accompanied by the other pushes on with quiet Oil. IV. 1-16,] EUCLESI.A.STES; OR, THE PREACHER. 05