The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 183

love of friends, saying, "Alas, my brother I" (1 Kings xiii. 30; the gtief of Constance for her son: cf. 'King John,' act iii. ec. 4), though sorrow on this account is greatly tempered by the consolations of the gospel in respect of Christians (2 Thess. iv. 13); it is to express the heart's affection for those who have been removed from its embrace, like Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted because they were not (Matt. ii. 18); it is even to pay a tribute of gratitude to God for the temporary loan of the precious gift he has withdrawn, as Job did when he lamented his dead sons and daughters (i. 21)-to record appreciation of its worth, and seek, if not its immediate return, its safe keeping till a future day, when they who have been severed here shall be reunited in immortal love. Hence it is easy to perceive how the house of mourning may be fitly spoken of as a house of Divine appointment. 2. The house of feasting a purely human institution. Not that feasting and dancing, considered in themselves, are sinful, or that there are not times and seasons when both may be indulged in without ~in. Many such occasions may be found in actual life, as e.g. in connection with birthdays (Gen. :xl. 20), marriages (Gen. xxix. 22; John ii. 1), and funerals (Deut. xxvi. 14; Job xlii. 11; Jer. xvi. 7; Ezek. xxiv. 17; Hos. ix. 4), with family rejoicings of other sorts and for other reasons. But the" house of feasting," contrasted with the abode of sorrow, is the tent of carousal, in which wine and wassail, song and dance, mirth and revelry, prevail without moderation, and with no other end in view than the gratification of sinful appetite. Such-like gatherings, having no sanction from Heaven, may be spoken of as instituted by man rather than as appointed by God. !I. 'fHE HOUSE OF MOURNING FREQUENTED BY THE WISE ; THE HOUSE OF FEASTI:N"G ATTENDED BY FOOLS. 1. The heart of the wise in the house of mourning. The wise are the good, serious, devout, religions, as distinguished from the wicked, frivolous, profane, and irreligious. The hearts of the wise are in the house of mourning, " even when their bodies are absent;" "they are constantly or very frequeutly meditating upon sad and serious things" (Poole); "they are much conversant with mournful subjects" (Henry) ; and as often as occasion offers and duty calls, they repair to the scene of sorrow and chamber of bereavement to sympathize with and comfort its inmates, as Job's friends did with him (Job ii. 11), and Mary's with her (John xi. l!J), recognizing it to be their duty to "weep with them that weep," as well as to "rejoice with them that do rejoice" (Rom. xii. 15) ; and even on their own accounts to learn the wisdom which such a scene is fitted to impart. 2. T11e heart of fools in the house of mirth. To this they are attracted on the principle that "like draws to like "-the same principle that constrains the wise to repair to the house of mourning, and by the gratification there found for their folly, in the laughter which there provokes their mirth, and the revelry which there slakes their longing for self-indulgence. II!. THE HOUSE OF MOURNING A SCHOOL OF WISDOM ; THE HOUSE OF FEASTWG A BOHOOL OF FOLLY. 1. The lessons taught by the house of mourning. (1) The certainty of death for the wise man himself and for all others. What he sees in the chamber of bereavement is" the end of all men," the end to which all the bravery and glory of all men must eventually come (2 Sam. xiv. 14; Ps. lxxxix. 48; Isa. xl. 7; Heb. ix. 27), the final scene also in his own swiftly fleeting life (Ps. xx:xix. 4) ; ri.11u so while he lives he lays it to heart, considers his end, numbers his days, anu applies his soul unto wisdom (Deut. xxxii. 29; Ps. xc. 12). (2) 'l'he vanity of all earthly tbings, and especially of pleasure and frivolity. 'l'he "song of fools," whether the bacchanalian carol, the obscene ballad, the comic ditty, or the amorous sonnet, grates with harshness and pain upon his ear, while the laughter it evokes is like the crackling of thorns under a pot, or of nettles under kettles, noisy, short-lived, evanescent, and profitless, leaving nothing behind but ashes (Isa. xliv. 20), a bad taste in the mouth, a p:iin in the ear, a taint upon the conscience, a wound in the heart. (3) The duty and sweet- ness of sympathy-duty for him and sweetness for the bereaved. Weeping with them that weep (Rom. xii. 15), he learns how to bear another's burdens (Gal. vi. 2), appreciates the inward satisfaction which flows from the exercise of sympathy (Prov. :xi. 17), sees the sustaining strength it yields to the weak and disconsolate (Prov. xvii. 17) and thus has his own soul confirmed and enlarged in goodness. "Sorrow," says Delitszch "penetrates the heart, draws the thought upward, purifies, trnnsforms;" and thus' as the Preacher observes, "by the sorrow of the countenance the heart is made better." (4) The value of serious talk. The discourse that prevails in the 170 ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. [on. v11. 1-29.