to a heavenly home, who look forward to a "crown of life," can afford to wait for our heritage.-0.
Vere. 15, 16.-The differenr,e at de,a,th. Even when we have been long looking for the departure of one whose powers as well as his days are spent, his death, when it does come, makes a great difference to us. Between life at its lowest and death there is a ·great· and felt interval. How much more must this be the case to the departed himself! What a difference to him between this life and that to which he goes! Perhaps less than we imagine, yet doubtless very great. The text suggests to us- I. WHAT WE MUST LEAVE BEHIND us AT DEATH. 1. Our worldly goods. This is an obvious fact, which painfully impressed the Preacher (text), and which comforted the psalmist (Ps. xlix. 16, 17). It is a fact that should make the wise less careful to acquire and to save. 2. Our reputation. The reputation for wisdom or folly, for integrity or dishonesty, for kindness or severity, which our life has been building up, death cannot destroy, through whatever experiences we may then pass. We must be content to leave that behind to be associated with our name in the memories of men, for their benediction or for their reproach. 3. The influence for good or evil we have exerted on human souls. These we cannot remove, nor can we stay to deepen or to counteract them; they are our most important legacies. II. WHAT WE MAY LEAVE BEIDND us. L .A wise dispositim of our property. A sagacious statesman once said that he never quite made up his mind about his neighbour's character until he had seen his will._ What disposition we make of that we leave behind is a very serious act of our life; there are very few single acts so serious. (1) It is usually a good thing for a man to dispose of a large proportion of all that he- has earned during his life when he is here to superintend it. (2) It is criminally careless to cause additional sorrow at death by negligence in the matter of disposition of means. (3) The kindest thing we can do for our relatives is not to provide absolutely for their wants, but to facilitate their own self-support. 2. Wise counsels to those who will heed them. There are usually those who will pay great regard to the wishes of the dying, apart from any "legal instructions." We may leave with those we love such recommendations as shall save them from grave misto.kes, and guide them to good and happy courses. 3. .A valued testimmy to the power and preciousness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. III. WHAT WE MAY TAKE WITH us. 1. Our faith in Jesus Ohrist; that settled attitude of the soul toward him which is one of trustfulness and love, which determines our place in the kingdom of God (John iii. 16, 16, 18, 36). 2. Our Christian life-its record in· the heavenly chronicles; that Christian service which, in its faithfulness or its· imperfection, will gain for us the larger or the smaller measure of our Lord's approval (Luke xix.• 16-19). 3. Qualification, gained by steadfastness, patience, zeal, for the sphere which "the righteous Judge" will award us and will have ready for us.-C. Ver. 1.-Vanity in religion: 1. Thoughtlessness. From secular life the Preacher turns to religious. He has sought in many quarters for peace and satisfaction, but has found none. Royal palaces, huts where poor men lie, cells of philosophers, banqueting-halls, are all alike, if not all equally, infested by vanities which poison pleasure and add to the burden of care. But surely in the house of God, where men seek to disengage their thoughts from things that are seen and temporal, and to fix them upon things that are unseen and eternal, where they endeavour to establish and maintain communion with their Creator, one may count upon finding a haven of refuge for the soul from vanity and ea.re. But here, too, he perceives that, by thoughtlessness, formalism, and insincerity, the purpose for which worship was instituted, and the blessings it may secure are in danger of being defeated and nullified. But a change is manifest in the tone i~ which he reproves these faults. He lays down the whip of the satirist, he suppresses the fierce indignation which the sight of these new follies might have e:s:cited within him, and with sober earnestness exhorts bis hearers to forsake the faults which separate between them and God, and hinder the ascent of their prnyers to him aud the descent of his blessings upon them. His feelings of reverence, and his 182 EOOLESIASTES: OR, THE PREACHER.