The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 187

Vers. 11, 12.-Wisdom and wealth. I. THE GREAT POWER OF WEALTH. 1. What it cannot do. (l) Purchase salvation for the soul (Ps. xlix. 6, 7). (2) Impart happi- ness to the mind (Luke xii. 15). (3) Secure health for the body (2 Kings v. 1; Luke xvi. 22). 2. What it can do. (l) Defend the body against want and disease, at least partially. (2) Protect the mind against ignorance and error, also again to a limited extent. (3) Shield the heart, once more in a measure, from such anxieties as spring from material causes. II. THE GREATER POWER OF WISDOM. 1. It can do things that wealth can. Nay, without it wealth can effect little. (1) It can often do much without wealth to avert want and disease from the body. (2) It can effectually dispel from the mind the clouds of ignorance and error. (3) It can help to keep anxiety alto~ether from the heart, to sustain the heart in bearing it when it does come, and to direct the heart how most speedily and effectually to get rid of it. 2. It can do things that wealth cannot. It-in its highest form, the fear of the Lord ( eh. xii. 13; Ps. cxi. 10; Job xxviii. 28), the wisdom of God (1 Cor. ii. 7), the wisdom which is from above (Jas. iii. 17), the wisdom which consists in believing on Christ, loving God, living in the Spirit, walking in love, and following holiness-can "preserve the life of him that hath it:" (1) the soul's life, by imparting to it the gift of God, which is eternal life; (2) the mind's life, by flooding it with the light of truth; and (3) the body's life, by communicating to it here on earth length of days (the first rule of health being to fear God and keep his commandments), and by restoring it at the resurrection to a condition of immortality. LESSONS. 1. The superiority of wisdom. 2. The duty of preferring it to wealth. Vers. 13, 14.-0rooked things and straight. I. CoMPOSE THE TEXTURE OF BUMAN LIFE. 1. Crooked things. Such experiences, events, and dispensations as ruu counter or lie cross to the inclinations, as e.g. afflictions, disappointments, and trials of all sorts. Few lives, if any, are exempt from crosse8; few estates are so good as to have no drawbacks. Examples: Abraham (Gen. xv. 2, 3), N11aman (2 Kings v. 1), Haman (Esth. v. 13), Paul (2 Cor. xii. 7). 2. Straight things. Such experiences as har- monize with the soul's wishes, as e.g. seasons of prosperity, dispensations of good, and enjoyments of every kind; and, as nobody's lot on earth is entirely stmight, so on the other hand no one's lot is wholly crooked-" there are always some straight and oven parts in it." "Indeed, when men's passions, having got up, have cast a mist over their minds, they are ready to say all is wrong with them and nothing right; yet is that never true in this worlil, since (always) it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed (Lam. iii. 22)" (Boston). Il. PROOEED FROM THE HAND OF GoD. Neither come by accident or from second causes, but from him "of whom, to whom, and through whom are all things" (Rom. xi. 36; 2 Cor. v. 18; Heb. ii. 10). 1. True of straight things. "Every good gift and every perfect is from above" (Jas. i. 17). Saint and sinner alike depend on the providential bounty of God (Ps. cxxxvi. 25), who appointeth to all men the bounds of their habitation (Acts xvii. 26) and measureth out their lots (Isa. xxxiv. 17; Jer. xiii. 25). So elementary is this truth that it needs no demonstration; yet is it so familiar as to be frequently forgotten. 2. No less correct of croolced things. These also are from God (2 Kings vi. 33 ; Amos iii. G; Micah i. 12). It is he who lays affliction on the loins of men (P$. )xvi. 11), distributes sorrows in his anger (Job xxi. 17), shows great a1Hl sore troubles (Ps. lxxi. 20), lifts up and casts down (Ps. cii. 10), wounds and heals, kills and makes alive (Deut. xuii. 39). The Preacher 174 ECCLESIASTES ; OR, THE PREACHER. [on. vn. 1-29,