Yers. S-17.-.A sermon on the vanity of richea. I. FREQUENTLY ACQUJnB:D BY WRONG, As, for instance, by oppression _a.ud robbery ~er. 8). That honest l~b~uf sometimes. lca,ls to af!luencc C-'lnnot be clcmcil (Pcov. x. 4 ; more often, µowever, 1t.1s the ungodly who incrc8se in riches (Ps. lxxiii. 12), aud t 1at, too, by means of their unc:rodliness . (Pro,. i. 19; xxii. 16; xxviii. 20; Hab. ii. 6, 9; 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10). Hence the question arises whether, if riches cannot be obtained without plunging into all sorts of wicked- ness, they are worth seeki~ to obtain at all; whether, if to secure .them a man must not only practise dishonesty, theft, oppression, and perhaps worse, .but conver.t his so.ul into a harbour of divers pernicious lusts, such as avarice, covetousness, and· envy, it is, really a good bargain to secure them a.t such a cost. Christ's question, •~ What shall it profit a man," et;c.? (Matt. xvi. 26) has a bearing on this. (On the evil11 that have come with the great accumulation of wealth, see 'Socialism New and Old,' p. xxxviii.: International Scientific Series.) ., , ., .. II. ALWAYS INCAPABLE OF YIELDING SATISFACTION. "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that ·1oveth abundance with increase" (v:er. 10). In addition to the well-known fact that material wealth has no power to. impart solid satisfaction to the better instincts of the soul (Luke xii. 15)-:-a. fact. eloquently COUl· mented on by Burns (' Epistle to Davie')- ., " It's no in titles nor in rank, It's no in wealth like Lon'on· Bank; To purchase peaoe and rest," eto. . ' I· - , -the appetite for wealth grows by what it feeds on. The rich are ever craving for more, "The avaricious man is always wanting," sa.~d Horace(' Epist.,' i. 2. 26); while Ovid (' Fasti,' L 211, 212) wrote of rich men, 11 Both their wealth and a furious lust of we!'lth iLLcrease, and when they possess the most they seek for more," . Hence, to use another rendering, 11 He whose love cleaveth to abundance hath nothing of it" (Delitzsch). "He who hangs his heart on the continual tumult,, noise, pomp, of more numerous and. greater possessions if possible, to all real profit-i.e. all pleasant, peaceful enjoyment- is lost" (ibid.). , III. OFTEN MULTIPLY THEIR OWNER'S CARES. 1. Numeroo,s dependents. Unless he is a miser, "who shuts up his money in cheats and only feed11 piruself in looking iit it with closed doors" (Delitzsch), the rich man, like Job (i. 3) and Solomon (!Kings iv. 2, etc.), will maintain a large and .expensive household, which will eat up his sub- , stance, so that, notwithstanding all his wealth, he shall have little more fol" his portion in the same than the satisfaction of seeing it pass through his -hands (vei;.,11). As Pheraulas the Persian -Observed to a Sacian youth, who congratulated him on being rich; "Do you think, Sacian, that I live with more pleasure the more. I possess? Do you not know that I neither eat nor drink nor sleep with a particle more pleaaure now than when I was poor? But by having this abundance I gain merely this, that I have to guard more, to distribute more to others, and to have the trouble of taki1;1g care of more • for a great many domestics now demand of me their food, their drink, and their cloth~s. . . . Whosoever, therefore, is greatly pleased with .the possession of riches will, be assured, feel annoyed. at the expenditure of them" (Xenophon, 'Cyrnpaiclia,' Yiii. 3. 39-44). 2. Increased anxieties. The rich maa, through the abundance of his riches is worried with cares, which pursue him into the pigbt, and will not suffer him to ~lt~p (vcr. 12), for thinking of how he shall protect his wealth against the midnight· prowler, of lww he shall increase it by success~ul trade and profita~le invee~ment, of how be 6hall employ it so as to extract from 1t the largest quantity of enJoyment; whereas the labouria_g man, whetl,cr he eats little or much, drops into refreshing slum1er the moment he lays his head upon his pillow, untroubled by-anxious thoughts as to how he shall dispose of bis wealth, which consists chiefly ill! the fewness of his \\ ants. So sang Horace long ago of "g,mtle sleep," which "scorns .not the l~umble awde~ of ploughmen" (' Odes,' iii. 1. 21-23), and Virgil of. the tillers of the soil, who OH, V, 1-20.] ECCLESIASTES; OR:, THE PR~ACHER. 123
" wnnt not slumber sweet beneath the trees" (' Georg.,' ii. 469); so wrote Shakespeare of the" honey-heavy dew of slumber"(' Julius Cresar,' act ii. sc. 1), describing it as • '' Sore labour's bath, ·Bnlm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chie_f nourisher in life's feast;" (' Macbeth,' act ii. sc. 2.) represei;i.ting it as lyi'ng rather • ·' "In smoky cribs Than in the perfumed obambers of the great ; " • (' Henry IV.,' Part It., act iii. ec. 1.)