Ver. 6.-The handful with quietness. '.l'he lesson here imparted is proverbial. Every language has its own way of conveying and emphasizing this practical truth. Yet it is a belief more readily professed than actually made the basis of human conduct. I, ABUNDANT MATERIAL WEALTH ATTRACTS ATTENTION AND EXCITES DES!IlE, II. THE DISPOSITION AND HABIT OF MIND WITH WHICH OUR POSSESSIOXS ARE E~JOYED IS OF MORE IMPORTANCE THAN TllEIR AMOUNT. 1. 'rbi:i appears from a consideration of human nature. "A. man's life consisteth not in the abuudance of the things which he possesses." 2. And experience of human life enforces this lesson ; for every observer of his fellow-men has remarked the unhappiness and pitiable moral state of wmo wealthy neighbours, and has known cases where narrow means have not hiudered real well-being and felicity. Ill. IT IS HENCE INFERRED THAT A QUIET MIND WITH POVERTY 18 TO BE PllEFE!lRED 'I0 WEALTH WITH VEXATION. So it seemed even to Solomon in all his glory, and simiiar testimony has been borne by not a few of the great of this world. Nor, on the ot,her hand, is it uncommon to find the healthy, happy, and pious among the poor rejoicing in their lot., and cherishing gratitude to God for the station to which they were born, and for the work to which they are called. APPLICATION. 1. The comparison made by the wise man in this passage is n rebuke to envy. Who can tell what, if his two hands were filled with earthly good, he might, in consequeuco of his wealth, be called upon to endure of sorrow and of care? 2. On the other hand, this comparison is an encouragement to contentment. A handful is sufficient; and a quiet heart, grateful to God and at peace with men, can make what others might deem poverty not only endurable but welcome. It is God's blessing which maketh rich; and with it he addeth no sorrow.-T.
Ver. 8.-The pain of loneliness. The picture here drawn is one of pathetic interest. It cannot have originateri in personal experience, but must have been suggested by incidents in the author's wide and varied observation. A lonely mn.n without a brother to share his sorrow1:1 and joys, without a son to succeed to his name nnd possc~sions, is represented as toiling on through the years of his lifo, and ns accumulating a fortune, and then as awaking to a sense of his solitary state, and asking himself for whom he thus 19.bours and endures? It is vanity, and a sore travail I J. THE COMPANIONSHIP OF DOMESTIC AND SO0IAL LIFE IS THE ORDER OF NATURE AND THE APPOINTMENT OF GoD's PROVIDENCE, There are cases in which men aro called 1;pon to deny themselves such companionship, and there are cases in which they have been, by no action of their own, but by the decree of God, deprived of it. But the 100 ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. [on. rv. 1-16.