The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 204

who was a welcome Guest. on occasions of inn?cen~ festivity (John ii. 2; Luke vii. 36), but whose presence was still more eagerly desired m the homes of the afflicted (John xi. 3; Mark v. 23), II. IT ENABLES UB TO FORM TRUER ESTIMATES OF LIFE, It gives us a more trust- worthy standard of judging the relative importance of those things that engage our attention and employ our faculties. It checks unworthy ambitions, flaUering hopes, and sinful desires. We learn to realize that only some of the airns we have cherished have been worthy of us, only some of the pursuits in which we have been en<ra.ged are calculated to yield us lasting satisfaction when we come in the light of e~rnity to review the past of onr lives, The sight of blighted hopes admonishes us not to run undue risk of disappointment by neglecting to take into account the transitory and changeful conditions in which we live. The spectacle of great sorrows patiently borne rebukes the fretfulness and impatience which we often manifest under the minor discomforts and troubles which we may be called to endure. III. IT REMINDS us OF THE POSSIBLE NEARNESS OF OUR OWN END. (Ver. 2.) "It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart." Though the brevity of life is a fact with which we are all acquainted from the very first moment when we are able to see and know what is going on about us, it is a fact which it is very difficult for us to realize io. our own case. "We think all are mortal but ourselves." No feel- ings of astonishmeo.t are excited io. us by the sight of the aged and weakly sinking down in.to the grave, but we can Bcarcely believe that we are to follow them. The very aged still lay their plans as though death were far off; the dying can hardly be convinced till perhaps the very last moment that their great change is at band. But a visit to the house of mourning gives us bard, palpable evidence, which must, though but for an instant, convince us that mortality is a universal law; that in a short time our end will come. The effect of such a thought.need not be depressing; it need not poison all our enjoyments ao.d paralyze all our efforts. It should lead us to resolve (1) to make good use of every moment, since life is so brief; and (2) to live as they should do who know that they have to give account of themselves to God, A practical beo.efit is thus to be drawn from even the saddest experiences, for by them "the heart is made better" (ver. 3). The foolish will seek out something which he calls enjoyment, in order to deliver his mind from gloomy thoughts; but the short-lived distraction of attention which he secures is not to be compared with the calm wisdom which piety can extract even. from sorrow (ver. 4). Painful though some of the lessons taught us may be, they wound but to impart a permanent cure; while the mirth which drowns reflection. soon passes away, and is succeeded by a deeper gloom (vers. 5, 6). One circumstao.ce reo.ders the teaching of this passage all the moro impressible, and that is the absence from it of the ascetic spirit. 'l'bis perhaps is, you will think, a paradoxical statement, when the whole tone of the utterao.cc is of a sombre, not to say gloomy, character. But you will notice that the author does not lay a baa. upon all pleasure; he does not denounce all io.nocent enjoymeo.ts as wicked. He does not say U is sio.ful to go to the house of feasting, to iudulge in laughter, to sio.g secular songs. There have been. and are those who make these sw~eping statements. But he says that a wise, serious-minded man will not find these things satisfying all his desires; that be will, on the conLrary, often find it greatly for his O.(lvantage to familiarize himself with very different scenes and employments. In other words, there are two sides to lifo-tho temporal and the eternal. The soul, like the head of Janus, looks botll on the present, with all its varied ao.d transitory events, and on the future, in which there are so mao.y new ao.d solemn experiences in store for us. The epicurean, the worldling, looks to the present alone; the ascetic looks to the future alone, '!'he wise have truo appre- ciation of them both ; know what coo.duct duty prescribes as appropriate in regard to them both. The examples of Christ and his apostles show us that we may partake both in the business and ino.ocent pleasures of lifo without beio.g untrue to our higher callio.". He, though "holy, harmless, undefiled, and scparo.to from sinners," wrought with his own hands, and thus sanctified all honest lnbour; be graced a marriage-feast with his preseo.ce, and_ supplied by a m!racle the _means of convivial cheerfuluess. Tho sirrhts and sounds of 01ty and country hfe, the mirth of happy homes, the splendour of p~nces, the pageantry of courts, the sports of children, were not frownc,l upon. by him  192 ECCLESIASTES ; OR, THE PREACHER. [011. vn. 1-29,