The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 205

as in themselves unworthy of attracting the attention of immortal natures; they were employed by hi~ to illustrate eternal truths. And all through the writings and exhortations of his apostles the same spirit is manifest; the same counsel is virtually giren t-0 use the present world without abusing it-t-0 receive with thankfulness every good creature of God. And at the same time, no one can deny that great stress is laid by them also upon the things that are spiritual and eternal; greater even than on the others. :For we are in greater risk of forgetting the eternal than of neglect.ing the temporal. Far too often is it true in the poet's words- " The world is too much with us ; le.te and soon, Getting and spending, we le.y waste our powers." Therefore it is all the more necessary for startling admonitions like these of Solomon's to be given, which recall us with e. jerk to attend to things that concern our higher welfare. The fact that there are dangers against which we must guard, dangers springing not merely from our own sinful perversity, but from the conditions of our lives, the danger especially of being too much taken up with the present, is calculated to arouse us to serious thought and effort. Very much easier would it have been for us if a code of rules for external conduct had been given us, so that at any time we might have made sure about being on tbe right way; but very much poorer and more barren would the life thus developed have been. We are called, as in this passage before us, to weigh matters carefully; to make our choice of worthy employments; to decide for ourselves when to enjoy that which is earthly and temporal, and when to sacrifice it Jor the sake of that which is spiritual and eternal And we may be sure that that goodness which springs from an habitually wise choice is infinitely preferable to the narrow, rigid formalism which results from conformity with a Purita.nic rule. It is not a sour, kill- joy spirit that should drive us to prefer the house of mourning to the house of feasting; but the sober, intelligent conviction that at times we may find there help to order our lives a.right, and have an opportunity of lightening by our sympathy the heavy burden of sorrow which God may see :tit to le.y upon our brethren.-J. W. Vers. 7-10.-Patience under provocation. In these words our author seems to commend the virtues of patience and contentment in trying circumstances, by pointing out that certain evils against which we may chafe brin~ their own punishment, and so in a measure work their own cure, that others spring from or are largely aggravated by faults in our own temperament, and that others exist to a very great ell:tent in our own imagination rather than in actual fa.et. And accordingly the sequence of thought in ihe chapter is perfectly clear. We have here, too, some "compensations of misery," as in vers. 2-6. The enumeration of the various kinds of evil that provoke our dissatisfaction supplies us with a convenient division of the passage. L EVILS THAT BRING THEIR OWN PUNISHMENT AND WOllK THEIR OWN CUBE. "Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroycth the heart. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof" (vers. 7, Sa). It is the oppressor and not the oppressed who ie driven mad. The unjust use of power demoralizes its possessor, deprives him of his wisdom, and drives him into actions of the grossest folly. The receiver of bribes, i.e. the judge who allows gifts to warp his judgments, loses the power of moral discernment, and becomes utterly disqualified for discharging his sacred functions. And this view of the meaning of the words makes them an echo of those passages in the Law of Moses which prescribe the duties of magistrates and rulers. "Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither shalt thou take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous" (Deut. xvi. rn; cf. Exod. xxiii. 8). The firm conviction which any extended experience of life is sure to confirm abundantly, that such moral perverseness as is implied in the exercise of tyranny, in extortion an<l bribery, brings with it its own punishment, is calculated to inspire patience under the endurance of even very gross wrongs. The tyrant may excite an indignation and detestation that will lead to his own destruction; the clamour against an unjust judge may become so great_ as to necessitate his removal from office, even if the government that employs him be ordinarily very indifferent to moral considerations. In any case, "the man who cau quietly endure oppression is sure to come off best in the eud" (cf, Matt, v. 38-,41), cu. vn. 1-29.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHEil. 1!)3