The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 124

while those of moderate, chastened desires can both be diligent in business and mindful of their higher interests; they can labour assiduously without losing that tranquillity of spirit and peace of mind which are essential to happiness in life.-J. W. Vers. 1-12.-Friendship a gain in life. A new thought dawns upon our author. In his observation of the different phases of human life, he notes much that is dis- appointing and unsatisfactory, but he also perceives some alleviations of the evils by which man is harassed and disturbed. Amidst all bis depreciation of the conditions under which we live, he admits positive blessings which it is our wisdom to discern and make the most of. Amongst these latter he counts friendship. It is a positive gain, by which the :difficulties of life are diminished and its enjoyments increased. In vers. 8-12 he describes an isolated life wnsted in fruitless, selfish toil, and dilates with something like enthusiasm upon the advantages of companionship. In order, I suppose, to make the contrast between the two states more vivid, be chooses a very pronounced case of solitariness-not that of a man merely isolated from his fellows, say living by himself on a desert island, but that of one utterly separate in spirit, a miser intent only on his own interests. We may call the passage a description of the evils of a solitary life and the value of friendshiE:_ I. THE EVILS OF A SOLITARY LIFE. (. Vera. 7, 8.) The picture is drawn with a very few touches, but it is remarkably distinct and vivid. It represents a "solitary, friend- less money-maker-a Shylock without even a Jessica; an Isaac of York with no faithful Rebecca." He is alone, he has no companion, no relative or friend, he knows not who will succeed him in the possession of his heaped-up treasures; and yet be toil;,1 on with unremitting anxiety, from early in the morning till late at night, unwilling to lose a moment from his work as long as he can add anything to bis gains. "There is no end of all his labour." The assiduity with which he at first applied himself to the task of accumulating riches distinguishes him to the end of life. At first, perhaps, he had to force himself to cultivate habits of industry and application, but now he cannot tear himself away from business. His habits rule him, and take away from him both the ability and the inclination to relax his labours and to enjoy the fruit of them. Have we not often seen instanees of this folly in our own experience? Those who have lived a laborious life, and have been successful in their undertakings, toiling on to the very Inst, afllicted with an insatiable avarice, never satisfied with their riches, and only enjoying the mere consciousness of possessing them? Have we not noticed how such a mau gets to be penurious and fretful and utterly unfeeling? He gathers in eagerly, and often unscrupulously, and gives out reluctantly and sparingly. He starves himself in the midst of abundance, grudges the most necessary expenses, and ilenies himself and those dependent upon him the commonest comforts. The misery he inflicts upon himself does not open his eyes to the folly of his conduct; he grows gradually callous to discomforts, and finds in the sordid gains which his parsimony secures an abundant compensation for all inconveniences. And not only does be doom himself to material discomfort and to intellectual impoverishment by setting his desires solely upon riches, but he degrades his moral and spiritual character. If be must keep all ho has to himself, he must often ignore the just claims of others upon him; be must steel his heart against the appeals of the poor and needy, and ho must look with scorn and contempt upon all those who are generous and liberal in helping their fellows. And so we find such men gradually growing harsher and more unsympathetic, until it seems at last as if they regarded every one about them with suspicion, as seeking to wrest from their hands their hard-earned gains. And what is the pleasure of such a life? How is it such men do not say within themselves, "For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good?" The folly of their conduct springs from two causes. I. They forget that unremitting, fruitless toil is a curse. As a means to an end toil is good, as an end in itself it is evil. It was never contemplated, even when man was innocent, that he should be idle. He was placed in the garden of Eden to dress and. to keep it. But it is either his fault or his misfortune if he is all bis life a slavish drudge. It may be that he is forced by the necessities of his position to lab0nr incessantly and to the very end, to mako a livelihood for himself and for those dependent upon him, but his condition is not an ideal 01;10. If be could secure a little leisure nnd rolnxntion, it would be all the better for hun in every sense of the word.  108 ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. [oH. IV, 1-16,