Vers. 3-6.-The gloom of disappointment. The case supposed in these verses is far more painful than that dealt with in the preceding passage. It is now presumed that a man not only lives to an advanced age-" a thousand years twlce told "-but that he begets "a hundred children." Yet he is unsatisfied with the experience of life, and dies without being regretted and houourably buried. And in such a case it is affirmed that the issue of life is vanity, and that it would have been better for such a one not to have been born. It must be borue in mind, when considering this melancholy con- clusion, that it is based entirely upon what is earthly, visible, and sensible. l. HERE IS AN EXAGGERATION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF OUTWARD PROSPERITY AND OP WORLDLY PLEASURE. The standard of the world may be a real one, but it is far from being the highest. Wealth, long life, important family connections, are good things; but they are not the best. Much of human unhappiness arises from first over- estimating external advantages, and then, as a natural consequence, when these are lost, attac~ing undue importance to tbe privation. If men did not exaggerate the value of earthly good, they would not be so bitterly disappointed, so grievously depressed, upon losing it. Il. liERE IS AN UNWARRANTABLE EXPECTATION OF SATISFAC'l'ION WITH WHAT EARTH OAN GIVE, Of the person imagined it is assumed "that his soul he not filled with good." 'rhe fact is that men seek satisfaction where it is not to be found, and in so doing prove their own folly and short-sightedness. God bas given to man a nature which is not to be satisfied with the enjoyments of sense, with the provision made for bodily appetite, with the splendour, luxury, and renown, upon which men are so prone to set the desires of their hearts. If what this world can give be accepted with gratitude, whilst no more is expected from it than reason and Scripture justify us in asking, then disappointment will not ensue. But the divinely fashioned and immortal spirit of man cannot rest in what is simply intended to still the cravings of the body, and to render life tranquil and enjoyable. Ill. HERE IS MOROSE DISSATISFACTION RESULTING FROM FAILURE TO SOLVE AN INSOLUBLE PROBLEM. Apply the heclonistio test, and then it may be disputed whet.her the sum of pain and disappointment is not in excess of the sum of pleasure and satis- faction; if it is, then the "untimely birth " is better than the prosperous voluptuary who failB to fill his aoul with good, who feels the utter failure of the endeavour upon which he has staked his all. But the test is a wrong one, however hard it may be to 14.8 ECCLESIASTES; OR, 'l'HE PREACHER. [en. VI, 1-12,
convince men that this is so. The question-Is life worth living? does not depend upon the question-Does life yield a surplus of agreeable feeling? Life may be filled with delights, and the lot of the prosperous may excite envy. Yet it may be nothing but Yanity, and a striving after wind. On the other hand, a man may be doomed to adversity; poverty and neglect and contempt may be his portion; whilst he may fulfil the purpose of his being-may form a character and may live a life which shall be acceptable and approved above.-T.
Vers. 7-9.-Satisfaction better than desire, It has sometimes been represented that the quest of good is better than its attainment. The truth and justice of this representation lies in the unquestionable fact that it would not be for our good to possess without effort, without perseverance, without self-denial. Yet the end is superior to tbe means, however excellently adapted those means may be to the Jiscipline of the character, to the calling out of the best moral qualities. l. MAN'S NATURE IS CHARACTERIZED BY STRIVING, DESIRE, APPETITE, ASPIRATION. Man's is a yearning, impulsive, acquisitive constitution. His natural instincts urge him to courses of action which secure the continuance of his own being and of that of the race. His restless, eager desires account for the activity and energy which dist.in- guish his movements. His intellectual impulses urge him to the pursuit of knowledge, to scientific and literary achievemeut. His moral aspirations a.re the explanation of heroism in the individual, and of true progress in social life. II. OF HUMAN DESIRES, NONE CAN EVER BE FULLY SATISFIED, MANY CANNOT BE SATrSFIED AT AJ.L. The testimony of those who have gone before us is uniform upon this point, "We look before and after, We pine for what is not; Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught : Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought." Thus it becomes proverbial that man is made to desire rather than to enjoy. Of our aspirations some can never be gratified on earth. The lower animals have desires for which satisfaction is provided; but whilst their life is thus thoroughly adapted to their constitution, this cannot be said of man, who has capacities which canuot be filled, aspirations which cannot be satisfied, faculties for which no sufficient scope is attain- able here on earth. His, as the poet tells us, is " The desire of the moth for the star, Of the night for the morrow ; The longing for something afar From the sphere of our sorrow." III. EVEN WISDOM DOES BUT ENLARGE THE RANGE OF MAN'S DISATIABLE DESIRES, It is not only upon the lower grade of life that we observe a discordance between what is sought and what is attained. For the philosopher, as for the uncultured child of nature, there is an ideal as well as an actual. Prudence may enjoin the limitation and repression of our requirements. But thought ever looks out from the windows of the high towers, and gazes upon the distant stars. "Who that has gazed upon them shining. Can tum to earth without repining, Nor wish for wings to flee a.way, And mix with their eternal day?" IV. TIIEBE CONSIDERATIONS TEND TO INCREASE THF. UNHAPPINESS OF THE WORLDLY, WHILST THEY OPEN UP TO THE SPIRITUAL AND PIOUS MIND A GLORIOUS AND IMMORTAL l'llOBPEC'l'. They to whom the bodily life and the material universe are everything, or even anything regarded by themselves, may well give way to dissatisfaction and despondency when they learn by experience '' the vanity of human wishes." On the other band, such reflections may well prompt the spiritual to gratitude, for they cannot believe the universe to have been fashioned in vain ; they cannot but see in the illusiona OJI. VI. 1-12,] ECCLESIASTES ; OR, THE PREACHER. 149