The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 206

II. EVILS THAT SPRING LARGELY J'ROH OUR OWN TEMPERAMENT. "The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools" ( vere. 8b, 9). That the disposition here reprobated is e. very general and fruitful source of misery cannot be doubted. The proud spirit that refuses to submit to wrongs, either real or fancied, that is on the outlook for offence, that strives to redress on the instant the injury received, is rarely long without cause of irritation. If unprovoked by real and serious evils, it will find abnndant material for disquietude in the minor crosses and irritations of daily life. While the patient spirit, that schools itself to snbmission, and yet waits in hope that in the providence of God the cause of pain and provocation will be removed, enjoys peace even in very trying circumstances. It is not that our author commends insensibility of feeling, and deprecates the sensitiveness of a generous nature, which is swift to resent cruelty and injustice. It is rather the ill-advised and morbid state of mind in which there is an unhealthy sensitiveness to affronts and a fruitless chafing against them that he reproves. 'l'hat anger is in some circumstances a lawful passion no reasonable person can deny; but the Preacher points out two forms of it that are in themselves evil. The first is when anger is "hasty," not calm and deliberate, as the lawful expression of moral indignation, but the outcome of wounded self-love; and the second when it is detained too long, when it" rests" in the bosom. As a momentary, instinc- tive feeling excited by the sight of wickedness, it is lawful; but when it bas a home in the bee.rt it changes its character, and becomes malignant hatred or settled scornful- ness. "Be ye angry, and sin not," says St. Paul; "let not the sun go down upon your wrath" (Epb. iv. 26, 27). "Wherefore, my beloved brethren," says St. James, "let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath : for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God" (i. 19, 20). III. Evn.s THAT A.BE LARGELY IMAGINARY. "Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely con- cerning this" (ver. 10). Discontentment with the present time and conditions is reproved in these words. It is often a weakness of age, as Horace has described it- .. Difficilis, querulns, le.ude.tor temporie a.cti Se pnero, censor caetige.torque minornm." (' Are Poet.,' 173, 174.) But it is not by any means confined to the old. There are many who cast longing glances back upon the past, and think with admiration of the age of heroes or of the age·of faith, in comparison with which the present is ignoble and worthless. It would be a somewhat harmless folly if it did not lead, as it generally does, to apathetic discontent with the present and despondency concerning the future. "Every age has its peculiar difficulties, and a man inclined to take a dark view of things will always be able to compare unfavourably the present with the past. But a readiness to make comparisons of that kind is no sign of real wisdom. There is light as well as darkness in every age. The young men that shouted for joy e.t the rebuilding of the temple acted more wisely than the old men who wept with a loud voice" (Ezra iii. 12, 13). And the question may still be a.~ked-Were the old times really better than the present? Is it not a delusion to imagine they were? Are not we the heirs of the ages, to whom t};te experience of the past and all its attainments in knowledge and n.ll its bright examples of virtue have descended as e.n endowment and an inspiration? The disposition, therefore, that makes the best of things ns they are, instead of grumbling that they are not better, that bears patiently even with very great annoy- ances, and that is characterized by self-control, is sure to escape a great deal of the misery which falls to the lot of a passionate, irritable, and discontented man (cf. Ps. xxxvii.).-J. W. Vers. 11, 12.- Wisdom and riches. The precise meaning of ver. 11 is rather diffi- cult to catch. Tho Hebrew words can be translated either as, "Wisdom is good with e.n inheritance" (Authorized Version), or, "Wisdom is good e.s an inheritance" (Revised Version); and it is instructive to notice that the earlier English version bas in the margin the translation which the Revisers have put in the text, and that the Revisers have put in the margin the earlier rendering, as possibly correct. Both ECCLESIASTES, 0  Hl4 ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. [OH, VII, 1-20